About this Event
Tetsuya Nishiyama, a native of Nagoya, Japan, came to American music through Prince and Michael Jackson; Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King inspired him to pick up the guitar, and George Benson was his first jazz guitar hero. Straight-ahead jazz was another matter. "I thought it sounded too complex and too abstract for my taste at the time," he told Omaha Magazine this year. "I never planned for jazz to become my life's path," he said, "but one day something simply clicked."
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in jazz studies at Northern Illinois University, where he studied with Fareed Haque and Bobby Broom. His faculty bio lists sideman work with Buddy Guy, Roy Ayers, Nathan East, and John "JR" Robinson. When the pandemic took his gigs and his income "got cut by 70% or 80%," he went to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to work on a doctorate in jazz performance. Today he directs jazz combos at the University of Kansas and teaches guitar at Washburn University.
One of his models for a jazz trio, he says, is Song and Dance, an album by his old teacher Bobby Broom. This year Omaha's Red Lion Lounge has booked his trio on Saturdays in August, October, and November. He's played the Blue Room's Monday jam three times and Jazz @ Noon twice, and this is his first weekend headline here.
He plays guitar on organist Mitch Towne's Refuge (2025), which won Album of the Year at the same February awards; Making A Scene wrote that "Nishiyama soars during his guitar solo." He believes the band played the opener, "Wolverine," only once.
The Blue Room, 1600 E 18th St, Kansas City, MO 64108. Saturday, December 26, 2026. Shows at 8:30 pm & 10 pm. $10 per show.
Event venue & nearby stays
Blue Room, 1600 East 18th Street, Kansas City, United States
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