Hikari Ichihara’s fifth album Move On features the trumpeter’s quintet performing finely-tuned compositions with jazz integrity and a vibrant sound full of sparkling energy. The tracks range from knife-edge sharp modern jazz, bouncy swing, wistful ballads, and rapid-fire straight ahead jazz. Also included is a single jazz standard, a fresh interpretation of “Everything Happens To Me”, delivered here with a relaxed groove. The quintet consists of strong, like-minded players who play with a polished yet intimate feeling, creating a solid framework for the improvisers to gracefully leap and flow over. Ichihara’s trumpet solos consistently capture attention, full of impressive decorative swoops and turns, loaded with dramatic soul and a beautifully fluid and organic sound. ...

Yuichiro Aratake’s The Light Flows In is a solo piano collection which sets a calm, relaxing mood, offering peace through original songs and charming jazz and pop standards. With patience and sincerity, Aratake performs the pieces as slow ballads, reflecting the gratitude for loyalty, friendship, and support that inspired the performances. This album features a special Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano, the deep and full tones echoing beautifully as the pianist moves freely through his selection of originals and familiar covers (“I Loves You, Porgy”, “Round About Midnight”, “What The World Needs Now”, “Blackbird”). ...

Pianist Harumi Nomoto’s 2014 release Virgo is a constellation of grooves, moods, and textures, boldly incorporating inter-genre approaches as piano jazz is woven with Eastern sounds, African rhythms, and hip-hop-influenced beats. Virgo follows the pianist’s previous albums Another Ordinary Day (2002) and Belinda (2007) and completes a trio of records that progressively show an expansion of creative vision and songwriting tact. Through arrangements honed at Japanese jazz clubs through prior years, the music was released to eager fans with this album of seven originals plus an arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys”, which gets a unique slow-and-low groove treatment here. ...

Through jazz, folk, rock, and imagination, the music on Zephyr unfurls like smoke rising from fragrant incense, floating and curling in beautiful patterns in the air. A trio consisting of saxophone, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar, the front-forward unit is unbound by genre, producing otherworldly sounds evocative of folk songs from a distant world. Peaceful, comforting, and deep, the ten tracks feature mostly original music supplied by the members, summoning tranquil and emotional moods. The music is lyrical and poetic, with suggestions of Jan Garbarek, Al Di Meola, Bill Evans and Stan Getz, and even Sting and the Beatles felt among the album’s tracks. ...

The deep, soulful voice of Masako Kunisada warmly embraces the listener on her 2014 recording M, performing classic jazz tunes as well as selections from the 70’s/80’s American soft-rock songbook, and closing with a tender ballad. The simple directness of this recording reflects an honest ethic, a special feeling of being home-made, made with care, carefully curated. Guided by happiness and an irrepressible joy for music, Kunisada sings from the heart and draws from various influences including jazz, R&B, Japanese soul and more, infusing it all with her sincere, expressive voice. ...

United by a stellar theme of the universe, the Tokyo jazz quartet Blue Dot explores stars and galaxies on their debut album Halo from 2016. Through ten songs tuned to the mysteries of space and time, the music is solidly modern and positively charged. Tokyo-based drummer Makoto Takeshi leads a quartet consisting of sax, piano, bass, and drums, with original songs supplied by all members of the group. The energetic opener, “Sturm und Drang” (by pianist Tamashi Goto) is a sharp-edge sprint through modern jazz, while “Bird” (by bassist Goro Takano) is a creative and mesmerizing tune, soft and deep, inspired by dreams of flying. ...

New York-style jazz with a fresh Japanese take is the focus on 2010’s Playing New York, where popular Japanese pianist Akane Matsumoto leads a trio with veteran NYC musicians Nat Reeves (bass) and Joe Farnsworth (drums). With ten songs ranging from speedy bebop to romantic ballads, well-known tunes from jazz influences are covered, such as Oscar Peterson’s “Wheat Land”, Bud Powell’s “Celia”, and Duke Ellington’s “Sunset and the Mockingbird”, a sensitive and lingering close to the album. Matsumoto also presents three original tunes: “Playing”, a whirlwind Phineas Newborn Jr-style quick bop, “Twilight”, a soft, tender ballad in three, and “My Dear”, a comfortable and heart-warming bossa nova tune. ...

Art music from two musician artists, N.40° is sweet and stimulating, mellow and manic, alternating between states on this compelling album. The emotive trumpet-and-piano duo of Shinpei Ruike and George Nakajima delivers atmospheric standards as well as boundary-pushing free improvisations. With moments of both comfortable and experimental jazz, the pieces alternate from limpid and romantic to free and offbeat wild abandon; fun improvisational pieces are placed like splashes of color between beautiful jazz songs (“The Nearness of You”, “Pure Imagination”, “Alone, Alone and Alone”). ...

Music that takes you places, Visible/Invisible from the Ryosuke Hashizume Group presents six works of art from the saxophonist/composer, perfectly executed by the five musicians, through mellow, warm electric guitar, grooving and smooth electric fretless bass, organic and emotive piano, thrillingly creative drumming, and center-stage visceral tenor sax, filling out the spaces of otherworldly jazz. Through sounds ranging from ethereal and delicate to deep and groovy, the music steadily develops in dramatic style, patiently, with nooks and crannies of musical texture creating a fulfilling, lush experience. This is art music, creative jazz with rock, modern classical, and free elements, carefully crafted with space for the skilled musicians to stretch out together, painting fantastic and vivid colors with harmonic richness and rhythmic dynamicism. ...