LIONELLE HAMANAKA is a third generation Japanese American jazz singer born in New York City. Her parents, both born on the west coast, had fled a concentration camp in Arkansas and settled in the Big Apple. Her father, Conrad Yama, is a diehard jazz fan and veteran actor who has appeared in stage screen and television. He once handed out leaflets on the streets of Greenwich Village outside the OPEN DOOR to get passersby in to hear Charlie Parker--BIRD. Her mother Mary is a descendant of a samurai clan in Japan. During the summers the family went to Provincetown on Cape Cod and her father hosted jam sessions that lasted late into the night. In 1998 Lionel Hampton invited her to appear at his jazz festival in Moscow, Idaho as a featured singer. Through the years she has appeared in many jazz clubs such as Ipanema, Angry Squire, Well's Copeland's, Sweet Basil, Blue Note, and many concerts, notably, the Dexter Gordon Homecoming Concert at Avery Fisher, the 25th Anniversary of Jazzmobile, the Big Apple Jazz Festivals and Salute to Women in Jazz produced by Cobi Narita, and concerts at colleges like Amherst and in the City University of New York.		In New York, Lionelle started jam sessions at Basement Workshop with her friend Geoff Lee, and also sponsored singers sessions at different restaurants. During the early 80's she was part of a vocal quartet called Joyspring that appeared at the Kansas City Women's Jazz Festival and numerous local venues. She has worked with great artists such as Chris Anderson, Walter Booker, Frank Gant, Jimmy Ponder, Walter Bishop Jr., Lionel Hampton, Paul West, John Hicks, and Dexter Gordon, and the most brilliant of the next generation, Jon Mark McGowan, Lonnie Hillyer, Harold Danko, Danny Hayes, Kuni Mikami, Bruce Edwards, Carman Moore, and many more. She studied classical voice with Camilla Williams, the famous classical soprano, developed a lower register wtih coloratura Arabella Hong-Young, Mark Zeller, and took years of workshops with guru Barry Harris, as well as private lessons with Lonnie Hillyer, classical piano with John Kamitsuka, and solfeg with Alberto Soccarras. Favorite color: Grape Hobbies: Reading, tap dancing