Fumi Okiji's Old Time Jazz Band

Fumi Okiji loves jazz music from its very beginnings through the golden era of jazz vocalists, modern jazz and the avant-garde movements of the sixties. Her influences are wide and varied, taking in Louis Armstrong, Ellington, Billie Holiday, Monk, Betty Carter, Mingus, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. But in putting together this group, Fumi wanted to focus on the earlier eras of jazz song from New Orleans, black vaudeville and the songbooks of Billie and Ella.