Nori(Noriatsu) Naraoka was born in Sapporo, Japan. 

Having been awarded a substantial scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, Nori came to Boston to study jazz in the fall of 1998.  

Nori has performed all over the country and world, from New York to Japan to Germany and beyond. Just a few of the outstanding music festivals that his touring has led him to include: The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, The High Sierra Music Festival in California, The Rochester Jazz Festival in New York, The Heineken Jazz Festival in Spain, The Ueda Jazz Festival in Japan, The Ingolstadt Jazz Festival in Germany, The Bourbon Street Festival in Brazil. 

Nori has performed and recorded with many top industry musicians including: Grammy music award winners such as Allen Toussaint, Nicholas Payton, James Carter, Terence Blanchard. Also world acclaimed musicians such as David Letterman’s music director Paul Shaffer, Page McConnell from Phish, George Clinton from Parliament/Funkadelic, Steve Berlin from Los Lobos, Zigaboo Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli from The Meters, Cyril, Ivan and Ian Neville from Neville Brothers, Jon Batiste, Marco Benevento, Russell Batiste Jr., Christian Scott, Donald Harrison Jr., Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, Papa Grows Funk, Kishi-Bashi, Adam Deitch, Kermit Ruffins, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Nicole Atkins, Fred Wesley, Bonerama, just to name few. 

In 2015, Nori became a member of the Grammy winner music group “Playing For Change”, and their music video with musicians from all over the world is now a nationwide TV campaign in Japan for one of the biggest stock brokerages in Asia.