Tomoko Funaki

2022 is bassist Tomoko Funaki’s tenth year as an SJW faculty member.

Tomoko Funaki was born in Japan into a musical family. Following in the footsteps of her parents, both musicians, she studied classical violin with the Suzuki Method at the age of 4 and flute at 16. A move to New York exposed her to a broad range of musical genres but she found herself increasingly drawn towards jazz.  After moving to San Francisco in 2002, she began studying upright bass and quickly immersed herself into the San Francisco jazz scene, studying and performing with luminaries including Ray Drummond, Rodney Whitaker, Rufus Reid, the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Andrew Speight, Vince Lateano, Mark Levine, Donald “Duck” Bailey, Allan Harris and Denise Perrier.

Tomoko has been performing regularly with Hard Bop Collective and her own ensemble.