Yasuko Kaneko is a Japanese trombonist, performing in small groups, and big-bands playing various kinds of music, as well as with her own group and solo, for which she also composes. Her composition and play are inspired by natural things, social circumstances of various problems around her, Japanese old-style art of flower arrangement called Kado, chemistry she enjoyed studying when she was a student, and so on.
Currently she plays creative music across musical categories. She joined the CD ‘Lemondale’ by Bill Wells, ‘Nariiki Big Band’ by Kevin McHugh. She is a member of Gato Libre, an acoustic quartet directed by Natsuki Tamura. She also played in Satoko Fujii’s orchestra in Kobe Japan. She plays music for Japanese improvised dance group ‘Manimani’. She belongs to The Noisy Women Present. She holds improvisation sessions in her town because it’s not so popular yet there, and she believes knowing improvised expression would help many people connect to others.
In 2020 she joined The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra (GIO)’s online sessions on Zoom. In 2022 she played with GIO in reality at the first time at GIOfest XV. After she came back to Japan, she played with GIO films edited by Ross Birrell at Okayama City Arts Festival. She composed for a few GIO festivals and Maria Sappho’s ‘VIR’ gig in 2024.