TAKANORI NIIDA Official Website

Takanori Niida, born on April 7,1969 in Sapporo City, Japan.

Takanori grew up in Sapporo and began to play drums at age four. At age ten, he went to the Yamaha Music School in Sapporo to study drums and performance. Shortly after graduating from high school, Takanori went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he took part in many recording sessions, recitals, and performances at The Berklee Performance Center.

Takanori moved to New York in 1995 after graduating, and gained great experience and exposure performing and recording with many artists in various genres.

In 2001, Takanori was hired as the support drummer by Atlantic Records producers Paul O'Neill and Bob Kinkel for The Trans-Siberian Orchestra where Takanori had the honor of performing with such artists as Al Pitrelli, Chris Caffery, and Alex Skolnick.

That same year, Takanori formed his own jazz-rock band, The Takanori Niida Project, featuring Adam Holzman (Keys.), James Genus and Matthew Garrison (bass) and others. This band has been performing around New York at world-renowned clubs such as The Cutting Room.

In 2002, Takanori also played drums with The Trans-Siberian Orchestra for their Christmas tour 2002.

Good fortune arrived shortly after in the guise of an old friend; at the 2003 NAMM show in Anaheim, California, Takanori ran into an old acquaintance. Tomo Fujita (Guitar), who was then an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music. It had been ten years since Takanori last played with Tomo, but when they met again, Tomo was working on putting a brand new trio with himself on guitar, Takanori on drums, and James Genus on bass. Recording sessions went greatly.

In 2004, Takanori made a studio recording with The Trans-Siberian Orchestra in May. That album, "The Lost Christmas Eve" was released in 10/12/04 and quickly went on to sell more than 500,000 copies in the last part of the year.

The past two years have seen Takanori very busy. He recorded his first solo album, "Life in the Big City," between April 2005 and April 2006, and released it in JAPAN on October 25th 2006. It was released by one of the most famous jazz-fusion labels in Japan, POLYSTAR JAZZ LIBRARY. The album features jazz-fusion greats, such as ex-Miles Davis sideman Adam Holzman (Keys.), Aaron Heick (Sax), bass legend Will Lee, James Genus (Bass), Jeff Allen (Bass), Jon Herington(Guitar), Jinshi Ozaki (Guitar) and Berklee College of Music faculty member Tomo Fujita (Guitar). It is truly a collaboration of jazz-fusion heavyweights.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album, "The Lost Christmas Eve," also went Platinum, selling more than 1,000,000 copies by the end of 2006.

In 2007, Tomo Fujita released his new album, "Right Place, Right Time," worldwide on June 6th 2007. The album features Tomo Fujita on guitar, Takanori on drums, James Genus on bass, and others.

Takanori went abroad to Japan for a three-weeks tour in June and a short-term promotion tour with Oz Noy's band in July. Both of those tours were a great success.

Takanori's first solo album,"Life in the Big City," was released worldwide on July 16th 2007.

In 2008, Takanori went abroad to Japan (including five major city Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Sapporo and Obihiro) for a two-weeks tour in February with his trio "The Takanori Niida New York Power Trio Featuring Tomo Fujita and Janek Gwizdala". This tour was a great success. "Live at the Mega Stone in Obihiro" will be released sometime in summer 2008.

Takanori has also been a GMS DRUMS endorser since 3/2/04, and an Evans Drum Heads endorser since 7/28/04 as well.