PERSONALITY
For someone as gentle of disposition as Akane is otherwise, she has a crisp, sharp singing voice, reminiscent more of Eartha Kitt than of Ella Fitzgerald which might surprise those who only know her the way she appears in her regular "speaking role". She is a quirky, charming performer and spontaneous of nature, always following her heart, no questions asked. A lesbian, she has just ended a four year long relationship, and sees her trip to Europe as a way of rediscovering herself on her own two feet. She is generally impossible to intimidate and approaches all challenges as a chance to grow.
APPEARANCE
H A I R : Long, straight and black.
E Y E S : Dark brown.
H E I G H T : 166 cm.
B U I L D : Petite.
D R E S S : Colourful, quirky, fun.
ABILITIES
S I N G I N G : She has received vocal training since she was eight years old, working specifically within the genre of jazz since she was fourteen.
M U S I C : She has studied mainly vocal music at a conservatory level, but can also play the guitar and the banjo, which she has trained since she was nine and eleven respectively. She's capable at the guitar, but not amazing, her favourite instrument besides her voice being the banjo.
S O N G W R I T I N G : Being completely fluent in English, Akane has for a long time been translating American jazz songs into Japanese and performed them in her mother tongue. Her translations stay true to the essence of the original song, but have their own poetic quality.
THE GRAND TOUR JAZZ BAND
V O C A L S & B A N J O : Akane Ito.
D O U B L E B A S S : Mieko Takahashi.
S A X O P H O N E : Mai Ichimura.
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ABOUT
Akane Ito was born as the youngest daughter of two upper-class parents in one of Tokyo's exclusive suburbs. She grew up a happy child who took to music early on, always humming melodies, singing and dancing, so her parents tried to nurture her in that direction, enlisting her at dance schools and at the local music school as well. Dancing was quickly ruled out, Akane didn't have two left feet, but she certainly didn't have a right one either, so focus was put on her musical endeavors where singing quickly became her passion.
Growing up a content, well-stimulated child, she poured all her energy into music and fell in love with jazz as a genre when she was still a teenager, building a growing collection of CDs and attending jazz performances whenever she could find the time to. Her brother went into the banking industry and both her parents worked corporate jobs, so there was a certain expectation that she'd eventually put aside her musical ambitions and undergo proper education, so she could in the end find a proper job.
Instead, Akane finished school only to devote herself to passing the entrance exam for the Tokyo College of Music, having picked up a second instrument relatively late, but still showing great potential. On her second try, she was accepted, mainly for her talents as a singer and studied an undergraduate degree in vocal music.
It was while in college that she met her two best friends, the classically trained double bass player, Takahashi Mieko, and fellow jazz enthusiast, the sax-playing Ichimura Mai, who would follow her into Tokyo's jazz scene after graduation. Mieko as a latecomer who showed natural affinity for the rhythms of jazz and Mai as a shining star on the musical sky, soon accompanying all the great jazz names in Japan on their albums when she wasn't playing in Takada Akio's Big Band along with the two others, all three of them getting hired for the renowned orchestra at the same time, Akane as a singer in the Takada Sisters five-voice ensemble.
After a couple of years, as they turned 29, all of them getting left by their partners around the same time, the three girls made a pact. The following year, when they'd all be 30, they would take two months out of their calendars, take leave from their jobs and use their combined savings to travel around Europe's greatest jazz cities as a travelling band, performing in the streets and see what happened from there. It would be the adventure of a lifetime. The next eight months went by, learning a big repertory of songs and Akane translating a range of jazz standards into Japanese, to be able to spice a collection of songs that would be well-known to an European audience up with something new and fresh.
The next year, they did as agreed. They took out money from the bank, took leave from Takada's Big Band for two months over summer and arranged for flights and hotels all over Europe, including in London, Montreux, Lyon, Paris, Amsterdam, Stuttgart and Copenhagen. With their instruments and little else, they left, never once looking back.
TRAVEL PLANS
E N G L A N D : Staying at a hotel in London, they play both in London and at the jazz festival running in Sussex. Two weeks.
N E T H E R L A N D S : Staying at a hotel in Amsterdam, they play the streets there. One week.
F R A N C E : Stopping over in Lyon for a week to play at a local jazz festival there, they spend the next week in Paris.
G E R M A N Y : First they play a week in Stuttgart, staying at a hotel there, to attend a jazz festival in the city, then a week in Berlin.
D E N M A R K : The last week of their tour, they spend in Copenhagen, staying at Tivoli Hotel at the center of the city.
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BASICS
NAME: Akane Ito
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: Travelling Europe
AGE: 30 years old
STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Jazz singer/musician
RESIDENCE: Tokyo, Japan
PERMISSIONS
BACKTAGGING: Y
4TH-WALLING: N
THREADJACKING: N
MIND READING: Y
FIGHTING: N
ROMANCE: Y
INJURY: N
KILLING: N
OOC
NAME: S.
JOURNAL: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) sunfright
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