About the Artist

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Yoko Noge is an inventive band leader, singer and pianist. She migrated to Chicago in the 1980s where she paid her dues performing in many westside blues bars and studied piano with boogie and blues master Erwin Helfer. Yoko’s band, the Jazz Me Blues, melds an incredible mix of Chicago blues, jazz, Japanese music, as well as Yoko’s original compositions. Chicago Tribune’s Howard Reich describes Yoko’s music as “jazz classics turned inside out” and “Japanese music transformed by the spirit of raw Chicago blues.” In addition to performing at local festivals, Noge has toured regularly in Europe and Japan. She has been chosen as “Chicagoan of the Year” by the Chicago Tribune and “100 Japanese the world respect” by Newsweek Japan. In 2014, Yoko was awarded the Foreign Minister of Japan’s commendation for “promotion of understanding between Japan and the U.S.A.”

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