Akane Matsumoto’s solo piano album Little Girl Blue from 2022 is full of good moods and good vibes, definitely different from any downcast implications that the album title may imply. A comfortable 42 minutes of traditional jazz standards from the 1930s-60s, this is feel-good music, happy jazz with a heartfelt beat, and even the most melancholy song, “Too Late Now”, is more likely to evoke a wistful smile than sorrowful tears. ...
Duo is the latest album from trumpeter Shinpei Ruike and pianist George Nakajima, two Tokyo-based jazz musicians who hail from the same area in northern Japan, along with many of the people who helped to create this recording. Like their previous release N.40° (a reference to their mutual hometown of Hachinohe), the music on Duo is atmospheric, moody, and mostly dark. The sound of Ruike’s trumpet is extremely evocative and textured. Like colors from a paint pallet, he mixes tones from husky to muted to bell-clear as his inspiration unfolds. Layers of emotion surface and mingle in his trumpet sound, as captivating as an audible patina cultivated through age and exposure like the surface of a brass horn. ...
Starry Nights is the latest album from the Kaori Vibes Quartet. This is leader Kaori Nakajima’s third album with her group, following her Flying Mind and /Cross Point /releases. On her debut album, Nakajima’s quartet previously went by Vangy!!, a charming name that combines the V from vibraphone with an initial from each musician, and decorated with two mallet-like exclamation points… though, four “!!!!” would also work, as Nakajima impressively plays the instrument with two mallets in each hand in the style of famous modern jazz vibists Bobby Hutcherson and Gary Burton. ...
Opening with a single-tone drone, electronic jazz music group Rabbitoo continues their retro-futuristic sound on their second album /The Torch /from 2016. Digital and analog sounds swirl and mix through Motohiko Ichino’s guitar, laden with textural effects and deploying modern music and rhythms alongside carefully tuned sound and static in an audiophile’s frame. This is vibe-setting music that wouldn’t be out of place in a fan playlist of lofi study beats or on the edges of a digital-future jazz collection. ...
Emiko Voice is always an interesting, active, and boundary-exploring musician, often simultaneously involved in a number of projects. Emphasizing her voice talent in her name (compared to a vocal or vocalist role), her singing, scatting, vocalese, and other voice skills are used liberally in her music. This includes her popular Brazilian music duo Meu Coração, swing and bebop recordings with pianist Suga Dairo, various chorus groups, duos, trios, and other groups with sometimes unconventional jazz combo formations. ...
The latest album from J Jazz pianist Yasumasa Kumagai is titled Last Resort, released in 2020 on his own independent label with his jazz piano trio plus Miki Hirose on trumpet. Although the eye-catching cover design may be a world away from typical jazz albums, the aggressive, tongue-in-cheek image succeeds in standing out, a conscious attempt to challenge flagging CD sales in recent years by piquing interest and possibly head-scratching confusion. ...
In welcome succession for eager fans, pianist Mikiko Nagatake released a batch of albums for the young jazz label Owl Wing based in Tokyo in recent years. Her works include two records as leader of a piano trio (Into the Forest, 2021, and Breathe Beneath the Sun, 2022), a solo album, a duo album with saxophonist Nami Kano (Jabuticaba, 2021), and a live album with trumpet player Tetsuji Yoshida (Live at Knuttle House, 2022). In fact, a new duo album (Locura de Amor, /2023)/ with flute player Naohiko Amatatsu was also just announced in the past several days. ...
Pianist Mamoru Ishida’s second album is titled /Ishida Mamoru 4 feat. Mike Rivett /and was released in 2011. With nine tracks over fifty-two minutes, the album presents a mix of covers, standards, and original compositions. The warm ballad “These Foolish Things” invites listeners in comfortably with a nostalgic calm, introducing a graceful jazz combo that respects traditional forms and songs loved by jazz fans. The music as a whole expresses this vintage, sincere jazz feeling generated by the players’ sensitivity as well as through the recording methods and equipment used. While this can seem to be something of a jazz throwback album (meant in a good way, a sound that can be set comfortably alongside favored music of the past greats), there are also several aspects of modern, assertive jazz making appearances as well… not to mention the Japanese and international context also layered in, described well in the excellent and extensive liner notes. ...
FNK is a group featuring pianist Fumie Chiba, guitarist Nao Teraya, and drummer Kaoru Suzuki, who released their first album Canvas in 2022. A jazz trio made up of piano, guitar, and drums is somewhat unconventional, without a standalone bass instrument playing a steady undercurrent of tonal and rhythmic grounding. But prolific modern composer Fumie Chiba supplied this trio with new songs and arrangements written specifically for this format, emphasizing their expansive sound and balanced dynamics. ...
Abstract Messages is the final record from the group Bungalow, an album created under unique circumstances and with a different structure from previous releases. A mix of acoustic instruments and electronic sounds, the album is not only full of beautiful music but is also an accomplishment of coordination, both in its creation and the dynamic of the music. Confined to two separate countries in 2020, the three remaining members of Bungalow were recorded in two different sessions. The two musicians Koichi Sato and Ko Omura recorded piano and percussion in Japan and handed off the recordings to third member Mike Rivett in Australia, who layered in saxophones, loops, and sound effects, and finished the mixing. ...
World-traveling pianist Yukako Yamano released Imperial in 2018, a three-song mini-album showcasing not only her original songs but also the special instrument after which the album is named. The inspiration for this album was the sound produced by a luxury piano the young pianist had the opportunity to play, a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial 1978. This type of grand piano has a bass-extended range of 97 keys over a full eight octaves, compared to 88 keys on a standard full-sized piano. The addition of extra bass strings and hardware not only offers the player deeper notes to strike but also enhances the total sound produced by all of the other keys with richer harmonic resonance — as well as increasing the overall size and weight of the imposing instrument. ...
While leading and participating in different groups through the years, musicians Hiroe Kobayashi and Sayaka Kishi have also played together on various projects incorporating standard jazz, pop, and Latin genres, and even Disney and movie songs. In 2022, the duo released their first full-length album entitled Luar under the band name Sul Madrugada. This name, Portuguese for “southern dawn”, together with the title Luar for “moonlight” beautifully describes the atmospheric direction the pair gravitates towards with this Latin jazz project. On this release, the duo is devoted to creating South American music in a package that embraces nature through the icons of the sun and moon. ...
With many jazz bars and performance opportunities reduced during the pandemic period, musicians used novel approaches to create and record music. Musicians would play together over video feeds, host live online events, and send audio files back and forth to one another for collaboration. Some musicians also composed and recorded in conditions resembling self-isolation or even quarantine, resulting in an increase in self-produced music created entirely at home by individual artists. Many of the albums released in recent years share these common bonds like generational traits imprinted on the music. This is another small way by which this period leaves unique reminders of the strangeness of the times characterized by new restrictions, lockdowns, medicines, and masks. ...
Trumpeter Tetsuji Yoshida and pianist Mikiko Nagatake create new music in old town surroundings on 2021’s Live at Knuttel House. Yoshida’s original compositions make up the six songs for forty minutes selected from live performances at Knuttel art and live house. The modest venue is nestled in a working-class neighborhood in old Tokyo that seems to imbue the music with the charm and patina of the traditional surroundings. Yoshida’s conceptions skate around the borders of jazz, rock, and blues with hints of uniquely Japanese folk melodies, into which the talented pair freely incorporates traditional jazz forms. ...
Fumika Asari’s first album is Introducin’ from 2020, a satisfying debut with a mix of players, combinations, and a to-the-point title with a respectful nod to classic jazz album titles. The beautiful sound of acoustic jazz matches well with the young guitarist’s natural style and concept, jazz that shuns attention-seeking tricks and lofty effects in favor of a genuine, pared-down jazz feeling. From song to song, the combination of musicians and styles changes, shuffling between quartets, trios, and duos. Throughout, relaxed easiness and vintage swing arise from classy ensemble playing and spotlit guitar improvisation. As for the changing combos, a guitar quartet is featured on track #1 (guitar, piano, bass, drums), then a trio on #2 (guitar, bass, drums), a guitar & guitar duo, a quartet, a trio, a guitar & piano duo, a quartet (guitar, alto sax, trombone, bass), a sextet, and finally a guitar solo. This variation of players and combinations of instruments keeps things interesting while introducing Asari’s musical vision for her debut release. ...
The title of the album Acoustic Fluid from the Ryosuke Hashizume Group captures the essence of moving, flowing sounds that fill up this music. Like most of Hashizume’s albums and live shows, his original compositions are featured on this 2012 album, his sixth release. Throughout /Acoustic Fluid/’s nine tracks, the five-member group expands these charts with push-and-pull activity, like waves on water or breaths of air. The music on this album alternates between slow, free sketches and mid-tempo modern jazz. The slower tracks are beautifully patient, somewhat open-ended with room for the group to pulse and grow organically while trekking through the movements. ...
For My Lady is a relaxing package of jazz standards performed by a sensitive trombone and piano duo. Akane Matsumoto, known for her impressive bebop and swing skills, joins up with young newcomer Nanami Haruta on trombone, and both players select favorites from the jazz standard library for this album, each song accompanied by comments in the liner notes translated below. With a laid-back and reigned-in sound, the album is easy to listen to, suitable for relaxation or a comfortable backdrop to day or night. The music fills the room with a calm background texture, with most songs played at slow tempos or as freely-interpreted ballads. The dark-tinged wistful sound of Haruta’s trombone supported by Matsumoto’s wide piano dynamics creates a melancholy feeling with undercurrents of swing, unobtrusive, quietly persuasive, and suggestive of mellow musical stories being told. ...
Phrases like good honest work and good clean fun convey the simple and satisfying rewards that result from high levels of skill, effort, and enjoyment. Good honest music is a simple but to-the-point description of saxophonist Seiji Harakawa’s debut album Skipping Down the Street, an excellent showcase for the agile alto sax leader and rhythm section to project their skill, effort, and enjoyment of jazz. The full group listed on the record, “Seiji Harakawa Quartet featuring Fukushi Tainaka” also emphasizes the importance of drums and groove on this album, and honors Harakawa’s experience playing living legend drummer Tainaka in New York for half a decade before Harakawa returned to Japan. ...
Saxophonist Akihiro Yoshimoto’s 62 Charlesgate is a 2022 album where he showcases both his original music and a group of young musicians from the Japanese jazz scene. The quartet is made up of saxophone, trombone, bass, and drums, with no chordal instrument like piano or guitar filling up the comping harmonies. The resulting music, composed for two horns to play melodies in union, harmony, counterpointing, or trading phrases, has a well-suited sound for Yoshimoto’s organized yet free and open concept on this album. ...
Yuichiro Aratake continues to express his compassionate vision with Music Make Us One, a live concert recorded in 2010 and released in a CD/DVD package. Through six songs, the 40-minute album features his expanded piano trio spotlighting harmonica, vocals, and an eight-member string section. Two of the six songs are instrument-based tracks that feature Aratake’s expressive playing that supports bluesy harmonica playing together and warm string arrangements. Vocalist Ryutaro Makino joins on the other four songs, including Aratake’s “Family” and “Say We Love”. The violins, violas, and cellos in the string section add a classy texture to much of the album and, together with the song selection and arrangements, shifts the music into orchestral pop territory. The recorded live sound also captures the expansive feeling of a large stage and concert hall filled with an audience of fans. ...
Vibrant is a 2020 solo piano recording from Hitomi Nishiyama, her second solo album after 2013’s Crossing and her 20th overall release. At the time of this recording, her heavy metal project NHORHM had recently finished, and on this album she chose to face the piano quietly and alone, playing nine of her original compositions. Providing an interesting contrast to the title, the monochrome package design is plain and minimalistic, listing the tracks and credits without any artwork or photos. The disc itself, printed in calming pink, begins to turn up the vibrancy level as you get closer to the recorded music. ...
The full title of this 2023 album sets the stage: “/Folds - Live at 100Ban Hall/ by the Hiro Kimura Quintet featuring Kazuhiko Takeda”. Folds is a live recording of Kimura’s quintet playing in Kobe in 2022. Drummer Kimura leads the group featuring special guest Kazuhiko Takeda, whose melodic, soulful jazz guitar is exquisitely framed by the relatively younger musicians. Regardless of age, the unit displays talent, harmonious energy, and reverence for the music they create together. ...
Awareness is the inspiring title of trombonist Mariko Maeda’s debut album of newly-recorded music that her jazz quartet is currently taking on tour in Japan. This eagerly-awaited debut album introduces listeners to Maeda’s style and influences through her artful playing and compositions. Fittingly, the cover art sets the mood with a beautiful painting that shows the young musician surrounded by symbols that tempt with possible clues and associations to the ten musical tracks. ...
On his debut album First Touch from 2021, George Nakajima delivers the curated sound of his jazz piano trio, thoughtfully balancing song choices and playing set modestly between modern edge and old-fashioned homage. Through its seven tracks, the album is easy to enjoy and runs for a satisfying 46 minutes. Joining the pianist are Nakajima’s long-time musical partners Yoshida Yutaka on bass and Masanori Ando on drums, a trio with a locked-in feeling created through years of performing together in Japan’s live scene. ...
Vocalist and pianist Rie Taguchi delivers a follow-up to her debut album The Gift with her 2021 album naturally titled The Gift II. This swinging outing features her Special Sextet as before with new outstanding arrangements. Presenting Taguchi’s sweetly mellow voice in an exquisite frame, Pianist Seiji Endo arranged all the songs on this album, and his vision combined with the front line of saxophone, violin, and guitar creates a lush, big band-style sound from the six instruments. ...
Jazz pianist Shunichi Yanagi’s Slope is his second trio release, a 2015 followup to his 2012 debut Bubble Fish. The trio explores fresh territory in the jazz, rock, and light groove moods which vary from track to track. Each member has a clean touch with a sense of drama in creating excitement, somewhat like a movie or video game soundtrack at times. The opening notes of Slope establish a delicate frame that quickly moves into a modern rock-styled beat, showcasing how this trio tends to move between jazz pop, rock, and light-as-a-bubble tenderness. Leading the trio as the primary composer, Yanagi orchestrates a progressive style, and his own playing is decorated with repeated arpeggios and densely looped patterns packed together like a woven carpet. ...
Vocalist Naoko Akimoto’s debut release No One Else is a seven-song introduction to the popular singer, a presentation of standard jazz and Japanese pop arranged with care and performed by top musicians from Tokyo. The arrangements are nice, particularly on the opening track “Moondance” which opens with a deep bass, piano, and vibes setting up a grove for Akimoto to lead the listener through the atmospheric drama of the tune. The decorated arrangements include vocal harmonies with trumpet, flute, and other instruments adding beautiful layers to the music. ...
Chihiro Yamanaka’s Outside By The Swing (2005) is her fourth piano trio album and continues her annual series of releases since bursting on the scene with her 2001 debut Living Without Friday. While previous releases were on the Osaka boutique jazz label Atelier Sawano, this release marks her first in a long run with Verve Records. The album contains a baker’s dozen of fun jazz tracks, some quite short but mostly in the four-to-six minute range, plenty enough to showcase Yamanaka’s piano filled with percussive fire and melodic creativity. ...
Yasumasa Kumagai’s Pray (2010) is a stylishly straight ahead affair, a cool and groovy collection of the pianist’s original tunes which melds modern jazz, soulful grooves, and gospel influences with his characteristic piano playing and original compositions. On Pray, Kumagai’s trio opens with “Brotherhood”, setting up an atmospherically moody yet light and relaxed vibe. Other album highlights include his live-show favorite “Yellow Tail”, a well-developed modern jazz exciter, and “Choir’s Got Fired”, a laid-back groove with irresistibly catchy riffs and an album highlight. The music is influenced by modern jazz players like Robert Glasper as well as hip hop concepts and includes enough dashes of unexpected changes, odd meters and beats, honest sensitivity, and spicy dissonance to keep the album in regular rotation for a great J Jazz piano trio playlist. ...
Yukako Yamano’s 3rd Stage is the third album in her live set series, following her 1st Stage and 2nd Stage naturally and wrapping up the symbolic three-set performance established by the album titles. With ten tracks and a running time of approximately 60 minutes, 3rd Stage demonstrates Yamano’s funky, poppy, delicate, and groovy sides through mostly original songs with a few covers as well. Differing from the first two releases, this album focuses on her work as a solo artist and showcases many of her original songs. Throughout, the music is infused with her special style of melodic and memorable jazzy pop creations. As a solo pianist, Yamano’s playing is loaded with catchy riffs and repeating patterns over which she develops improvisational explorations. At other moments, she can create lovely, somber themes with fragile atmospheres. Songs like “Mahoruba” and “Before After” range from galloping grooves to sweet and cute music, while the show-stealer “Summertime/Piano Concerto No. 2” merges Gershwin and Rachmaninov themes in an impressive medley. The final track, “Love Coke!”, is another popular crowd-pleaser and a fun tribute to her collection of variations of this addictive soft drink. ...