Vocalist Rie Taguchi leads a swinging sextet on her first full-length album, The Gift. Her sultry voice seems to crack smiles and reminisce on old times as she dips and sways through the music. Popular standards such as “I Wish You Love” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” convey her cheerful energy, hearkening back at times to a type of Las Vegas showroom jazz. Her bright charm describes a sparkling smile, perhaps even a tipsy grin as she gracefully sings the notes. ...
Pianist and composer Koichi Sato’s 2016 release Melancholy of a Journey features a distinctive jazz sextet: a piano trio adding clarinet and guitar for modern groundedness and cello providing graceful maturity. Sato conceived the main theme while traveling in Norway and viewing a certain painting. The work of art, Art Rolfsen’s “The Big Station”, graces the cover and inspired “The Railway Station”, a four-part suite arranged over four tracks. This music emerges and recedes through tracks #1, 6, 9, and 12, resulting in four distinct songs with common echoes. ...
Seiji Endo, a poet at the piano, plays his original compositions for solo piano on his second solo album Circle for Peace. While he plays unaccompanied throughout, a children’s choir (Zushi Iruka Jido Gasshoudan) also joins him briefly on tracks 1 and 11, reminding one of the childlike purity and hopefulness conceived in his music. Through sincerity depicted on the album cover and title, the concept is peace and comfort. Accordingly, Endo’s playing is full of emotion: tenderness and sensitivity ring throughout, with some melancholy mixed in, alternately romantic, classical, and soft pop at times. Melodic quotes from his previous album even make appearances. Overall, Endo conveys his personality through his soothing music filled with hope and beauty, calm and peace. ...
Takuji Yamada is a professional jazz musician who takes care with his jazz. His first album Lite Blue from 2012 reflects that care through his beautifully written compositions and nicely-arranged standards, not to mention his spot-on stimulating jazz sax playing. Accurate playing, adventurous phrasing, and emotional balance mark this modern jazz album with a distinctive New York flavor. The NY-based rhythm section players keep the soloist’s backdrop consistently interesting through the range of moods, from modern straight-ahead jazz to bluesy, groovy, and romantic. ...
Faith is the second album from Mayuko Katakura, an amazing jazz pianist with an impeccable touch that echoes jazz piano legends. Listening to Katakura, one can sense the fondness and appreciation for players like McCoy Tyner and Sonny Clark. In fact, the album’s wistful ballad “Blue Sonny” was written for Sonny Clark by Katakura. This straight-ahead jazz trio is marked by warmth between the musicians, who agreed to not over-arrange the recording session and have faith in the group and their love of jazz. Simple and irresistable, the group jumps in and swings hard together with skillful agility over five of the pianist’s originals and five jazz covers. The resulting sense of relaxation allows their individual mastery and group cohesiveness to produce exciting results, proving their faith to be well-rewarded. ...
Accomplished pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi leads a trio of solid veterans in the straight-ahead jazz tradition on his 2016 album Invisible. The trio works well together, demonstrating the equal partnership and careful intercommunication that occurs between professional jazz musicians. Evident throughout is a confident sense of risky looseness, with complete control of timing and notes, each member supporting and energizing one another. The pianist Ohkuchi contributes three original songs (the opener is a highlight) with other tunes by Andrew Hill, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and others – undoubtedly influences on Ohkuchi’s piano style. The result is a skilled piano trio having a great time making high-caliber jazz. ...
Trumpeter Keisuke Nakamura leads a group of contemporary jazz musicians called Humadope, a post-bop Jazz Messengers-styled quintet with a trumpet-sax front line and piano-bass-drums rhythm section. The name itself (a mix of human/mad/dope) suggests a dangerous edge on blisteringly fast tunes as the skilled soloists riotously burn through the changes. Yet, the group handily balances this attitude with a warm sensitivity played on soulful ballads and cooler numbers. This album consists of well-written original compositions with a few covers thrown in (Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones). Overall, this is an excellent debut with a variety of moods, tempos, and exciting solos showcasing some premium J Jazz from the current crop of musicians. ...
With a clean, clear pianist’s touch melding jazz with classical and a subtle rock sensibility, Hitomi Nishiyama’s 2007 album Many Seasons is reminiscent of great European jazz melodists (Giovanni Mirabassi comes to mind), with lyrical passages twisting through rich harmony and odd meters. Aside from the high technical prowess, the beautifully-written songs overflow with delicate emotion, with pangs of nostalgia and sweetness in abundance. This album was recorded in Stockholm with two Swedish musicians, befitting the graceful melding of European and Japanese musical minds on display. ...
Bass on Times is a 2009 album from jazz bassist Satoshi Kosugi, a well-known and active musician in Japan’s jazz scene spanning several decades. For this recording, Kosugi assembles familiar partners and veteran players such as the bluesy Shinji Hashimoto on guitar and Kazuhide Motooka on piano, to deliver hard-swinging standards such as “Monk’s Dream”, “Vierd Blues”, and “The Best Thing For You Would Be Me”. With good arrangements and strong bass, naturally, the well-established musicians deliver quality jazz with a genuine good spirit throughout this satisfying record. One happy highlight even has Kosugi joyfully whistling the melody on “There Goes My Heart” as he doubles with his bass line to open and close the swinging tune. ...