Beyond the Sea is saxophonist Miyuki Moriya’s fourth album as a leader, which she released in 2024 with her regular quartet of Mamoru Ishida (piano), Junichi Sato (bass), and Sohnosuke Imaizumi (drums). This album contains nine tracks over sixty-eight minutes and features mostly originals from the saxophonist, with two specially selected cover songs from Japanese jazz musicians that influenced her most in her jazz life. One of those personal heroes is saxophonist Kosuke Mine, who joins the group as a special guest and adds his engagingly vibrant tenor sax sound on five of the nine tracks. Those include two of the album’s peaks for excitement (the edge-of-your-seat #2 “Flip a Coin” and the funkily thrillseeking #5 “Maverick”) as well as Mine’s introspective ballad #7 “After the Checkout” where the two saxes converse over melancholy piano chords to set a dramatic scene. ...

Magnolia is a trio made up of vibraphone, piano, and percussion, and their debut album, El viento y las flores was released in 2022. This fifty-six-minute album contains ten tracks of all original compositions, four from vibraphonist Reiko Yamamoto and three each from pianist Yuka Yanagihara and percussionist Hitomi Aikawa. Despite having three independent composers, their tight interplay and musical personalities seem tightly bound together, as if their collective music just blooms out intuitively unified. ...

Velvet Sun is a music spot in the Ogikubo neighborhood off the Chuo train line in Tokyo. This is a train route that has been called the “Jazz Line” for a number of live spots and jazz stops along its stations, such as Kichijoji’s Sometime, Asagaya’s Manhattan, Koenji’s After Hours, Nakano’s Sweet Rain, and Shinjuku’s many great spots like Pit Inn and Polka Dots. Figure 1: Motohiko Ichino (guitar) and Takashi Sugawa (bass) at Velvet Sun in May 2024 ...

Bassist Motoi Kanamori released his third album The Live in 2023. This is a double CD album with a title that aptly reflects the energy of his group captured in a live concert recording. The two discs are divided between one set from his trio (with pianist Hiroyuki Takubo and drummer Akira Yamada) playing rearranged versions of classic jazz standards, and a second set from his trio with strings, featuring a four-piece string section of two violins, one viola, and one cello. ...

Renowned jazz bassist Daiki Yasukagawa is actively engaged in a variety of fascinating projects within the Japanese jazz scene. One of those, the Daiki Yasukagawa New Trio, released their first recording with this 2022 album, The Three Roses. The trio’s music and production are in good hands, being led by the veteran bassist and lecturer who consistently appears in live performances and recordings. Yasukagawa has also been running his own music label, D-musica, for many years, uniquely spotlighting select musicians from the Japanese jazz music scene, including some of his albums as well. ...

Owari to Hajimari (The End and the Beginning) is a new album from the duo of vocalist Nobie and guitarist Takayoshi Baba. Released in 2023, this disc features forty minutes of music written and adopted from the duo’s repertoire and experience playing jazz, pop, and Brazilian music together. The two have released their own leader albums and recordings with other groups, but this is the first album to be released under their co-named band partnership and builds on their vast experience playing together in various settings. ...

Boundary is the 2018 release from the trio of pianist Megumi Yonezawa, bassist Masa Kamaguchi, and drummer Ken Kobayashi. This album is the result of a suddenly booked recording session in Brooklyn while bassist Kamaguchi was temporarily in town and playing with the New York-resident pianist and drummer. Their live performance inspired a producer to arrange a trio recording while the opportunity was available. Open and experimental, the music on the album is 66 minutes of improvisation. The songs are a loosely-structured dialogue between the three members as they play freely using prompts and suggestions to one another, responding in the moment to what they are hearing from others and imagining within themselves. ...

Calling all jazz nuts! Jazz Nutty is a small coffee shop near Waseda University in Tokyo where the jazz records are cranked and the coffee flows hot. The shop name is undoubtedly a tribute to the Thelonious Monk tune “Nutty”, similar to other jazz spots which honor famous musicians, albums, or tunes from jazz history, like the bar Salt Peanuts for example. Also in the legume/nut theme is of course the general jazz vibe of “Peanuts jazz” with Charlie Brown and Snoopy that is ever popular and present this time of year. ...

Oh, Lady Be Good is a piano trio album from Tokyo-based jazz pianist Akane Matsumoto. She’s been releasing trio recordings since 2008, along with albums playing with quartets and quintets, although her recent albums have featured her in small ensembles rather than her regular combos. In fact, since this record (recorded and released in 2019), her latest releases have focused on solo and duo formations, such as her piano album Little Girl Blue (2022), her duo with trombone on For My Lady (2023, with Nanami Haruta), and her latest piano and saxophone duo release Trust (2024, with Ayumi Koketsu). All of which is to say that this album, Oh, Lady Be Good, is her most recent jazz piano trio release. ...