With a pleasantly minimalist sensibility focused on creating a simple space for live jazz, Tokyo jazz room Apple Jump is easy to love. This small club is another favorite place to catch live performances from small combos featuring vocalists, violins, horn players, flutists, vibraphonists, straight-ahead piano trios, and more. Genres can also vary based on the night’s schedule. Figure 1: Maiko (violin) with Shikou Ito (piano) and Hiroki Miyano (guitar) at Apple Jump in March 2014 ...

On Banquet, pianist and composer Sayaka Kishi’s latest album from 2024, her piano trio brightens things up with a banquet of delights. Kishi has long been a musician who loves to explore and mix genres with a sense of fun and dedication, and she is often found playing in Latin, Afro-Cuban, flamenco, fusion, and other groups. While the genres are many, Kishi consistently pulls from her knowledge of jazz standards, pop, classical, and other roots, bound together with swing and Latin beats and ad-libbed improvisation. ...

Nobie is a multi-talented artist whose musical and professional paths started at a young age. These included learning the violin and piano which led to voice, percussion, and pharmacy studies, and through many genres like jazz, soul, pop, and Brazilian music. Her storied journey includes forays in the bands of renowned Brazilian bass player Luizão Maia (partnered with Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina, and others—coincidentally, Nobie’s even been described as “the Japanese Elis Regina”), Soil & Pimp Sessions pianist Josei’s Alma+ band, famous Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, influential Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and the popular Japanese jazz/samba/fusion of Shinichi Kato’s B-Hot Creations. ...

With low-slung couch seats and candle-lit tables, the dimly-lit Jazzspot J (aka JazzSpot J, Jazz Spot J, or just J) felt like the grandfather of jazz bars in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It’s an image that conveys an older-but-comfortable insider’s hangout, and fits this well-known bar’s over-40-year history and authentic ambience. Figure 1: The Yuji Ohno Trio at Jazzspot J in May 2007 ...

In the style of classic apostrophe-bearing jazz album titles, pianist Yasumasa Kumagai and bassist Ryu Kawamura offer up Ol’ School Jazz, a collection of beloved jazz standards played with authenticity and a love for the era with their pared-down duo format. (Aside: Following this apostrophe trail, this album’s bluesy first track may be no accidental serendipity but an intentional pick. Starting with the album title Ol’ School Jazz, the first track “Driftin’”, and that song’s origin on Herbie Hancock’s Takin’ Off, that’s three apostrophes already. Did the friendly informality of this “jazz apostrophe” as used in the day carry a similar effect — particularly for the “jazz atmosphere” of certain albums, laid back but highly skilled, casual but serious — as emojis and internet abbreviations do today? A prototype for the simple, effective, and immediate impact of quick slang like LOL, OMG, WTF? BRB…) ...

Tokyo’s Gate One is a classic neighborhood jazz bar, a local favorite for jazz fans and musicians around the Takadanobaba area. This basement live spot was started by husband-and-wife pair Shinji Hashimoto and Mariko Kajiwara with assistant manager Mai twenty-five years ago. Most fortunately, Gate One is still filled with their spirit of genuine jazz appreciation and communal love of live music. Figure 1: Tomoka Miwa (vocal) with George Nakajima (piano), Satoshi Kosugi (bass), and Yudo Matsuo (guitar) at Gate One in 2010 ...

Koichi Sato’s two-disc album Embryo is another remarkable showcase for the talented composer/arranger/pianist. Unfolding the gift-like box presents two CDs enclosed in an all-paper-and-cardboard-constructed package, a pleasing way to open the concept album. The placid cover art also carries a surprise, one that is illuminated when the lights are turned down for a listening session. The concept is made clearer in the titles of the two discs, Disc 1 “Water” and Disc 2 “Breath”. The two titles perhaps symbolize the transition from womb to world, and describe the sounds of each side. The first disc has Sato playing fourteen of his songs on solo piano, and the second finds Sato playing with small ensembles on twelve tracks, with some of his songs rearranged and repeated between the two discs. ...

Banda Feliz is a group of Tokyo musicians playing festive Brazilian music, originals and covers, centered around Makiyo Sakai’s robust and jazzy flute playing. Her lighter-than-air flute sound is buoyed by her full six-piece palette with trombone, guitar, piano, bass, and drums, and the group’s voices happily join the melodies at times for extra oomph. Happiness is integral to the band’s sound, even evident in the artist name and album title, roughly translated as cheerful, joyful, happy band and bon voyage. ...

Pianist and composer Eri Chichibu released her debut album Crossing Reality in 2022. On it, she includes eight of her fine-tuned compositions for combos ranging from duos and trios to five-, seven-, eight-, and nine-member ensembles. The sound of Chichibu’s music fascinates with creative arrangements of harmonized horn lines, suspenseful rhythms, and multi-part musical sections. As the liner notes indicate, her songs shine with personality inspired by concepts and ideas that move her. ...