Building upon his decades of success as a Japanese pop star, Senri Oe has made a surprising stylistic transition with albums that showcase his skills a jazz pianist. From the 1980s through the '90s, Oe released a series of Top 40 pop albums, scoring hits like "Wallabee Shoes" and "10 People, 10 Colors" and taking home awards including the 1989 Gold Disc Award for Best Male Pop Artist. A late-career choice to earn his jazz degree from New York's the New School found Oe shifting gears and releasing a string of highly regarded jazz piano albums, including 2012's Boys Mature Slow, 2013's Spooky Hotel, and 2016's Grammy-nominated Answer July. He revisited his pop hits on 2018's Boys & Girls, showcased his trio on 2019's Hmmm, and explored '70s-style fusion on 2021's Letter to N.Y..

Born in 1960 in the city of Fujiidera, Osaka, Japan, Oe started on piano around age three. During junior high, he studied privately with singer/pianist Yumi Nara, who later earned her own renown as an opera singer. It was Nara who first encouraged Oe to improvise and compose his own music, which he did, drawing early inspiration from artists like Gilbert O'Sullivan and the Carpenters before discovering jazz artists like Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Despite an initial flirtation with fame while competing in the 1975 Yamaha Popular Song Contest POPCON, Oe paid his dues. He enrolled as an economics major at Kwansei Gakuin University, all the while playing in his band. It was during this period that he caught the attention of a music executive who signed him to Epic/Sony Japan. In 1983, he released his debut album, Waku Waku, which featured the Top Ten single "Wallabee Shoes." A year later, he hit number five on the Oricon Albums Chart with his sophomore full-length, Miseinen, which was buoyed by the song "10 People, 10 Colors."

Accolades followed, including winning Album of the Year in the Pop Male Solo Artist category for 1988's 1234 at Japan's Gold Disc Awards. In 1991, he released Apollo, which he recorded in New York City. It topped the Oricon Albums Chart and led to an extensive stadium tour in Japan. He also launched his own Station Kids Records and began expanding his work. Always interested in moving beyond pop music, he supplied the score for several films, including Noto No Hanayome and Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure in the South Seas.

In 2007, he made the decisive choice to enroll at the New School in New York City to study jazz. Following his graduation in 2012, he formed his own Peace Never Die label (named after his dachshund Peace). That same year, he released his first album of small group jazz, Boys Mature Slow. A year later, he returned with Spooky Hotel, which found him composing for a big band. For his third album, 2015's Collective Scribble, he pared down to a drummer-less trio, recording with saxophonist Yacine Boulares and bassist Jim Roberston.

Answer July arrived in 2016 and found Oe collaborating with acclaimed vocalists Sheila Jordan, Jon Hendricks, Theo Bleckmann, and Lauren Kinhan. It earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Album. A year later, he combined his pop and jazz skills on Boys & Girls, reworking some of his biggest pop hits in a jazz fashion. In 2019, he released Hmmm, which showcased his trio with bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Ari Hoenig. His seventh album, Letter to N.Y., arrived in 2021 and found him drawing inspiration from the '70s and '80s fusion of Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, and others. ~ Matt Collar