Kazue Patton was raised in a family full of designers and artists in Japan. She began formally studying ballet at the early age of three and piano at the age of four, while at home her father was teaching her to sing in English.

It was her father’s training that prevailed when, in 1989, she went to Tokyo and became a member of the Light Music Club and started to sing jazz, while studying interior design at Tama Art University. She quickly took the lead of the university jazz band, participated in several other bands as the main vocalist, singing jazz, blues and soul, and joined the Chuo University Swing Crystal Orchestra, which was awarded the grand prize at Kobe Jazz Competition.

 

After graduating, Ms Patton began studying Jazz vocals under Yasushi Sawada, famous Japanese jazz singer, musician and teacher. In 1995, Ms Patton was awarded the gold prize in the Asakusa Jazz Festival and won the special prize at the New Star Competition at Tatou Tokyo in 1996. Kazue established herself in the Japanese jazz community performing every Friday night at The Osho & Patra Jazz Club, a well-known jazz venue in Tokyo, from 1999 through 2005.

 

Since her arrival in the U.S. in 2005, Ms. Patton has been fine-tuning her voice under the tutelage of Jay Clayton, Barry Harris, Jazz Master and Cynthia Scott. In addition, she has been performing with internationally renowned jazz musicians in jazz venues around NYC and beyond. In 2013, she released her first album "Dream Flight" and toured in Japan in 2014. She performed with Jeb Patton Trio at Daegu International Jazz Festival in South Korea in 2015. In the midst of the global pandemic in 2020, she entered the City College of New York, Jazz Course and learned jazz vocals from Suzanna Pittson, Amy London, and jazz composition and arrangement from Mike Holober, Ray Gallon. She graduate with honors in May 2023.

 

Kazue has performed at Jazz at the KITANO, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Blue Note, Smoke Jazz Club and Cleopatra’s Needle in NYC, at the Eubie Blake Jazz Center in Baltimore, MD, The Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C., on the Norwegian Sun during the 10th annual Jazz Party at Sea, and in Tokyo at Body & Soul, Birdland, the Jazz Spot J, Osho & Patra.

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She has performed with Albert “Tootie” Heath, Peter Bernstein, Jeb Patton, David Wong, Marcus Belgrave, John Lee, Freddie Hendrix, Luca Santanielo, Yasushi Sawada, Kanji Ota, Keiich Yoshida and Takashi Mizuhashi to name a few.