佐藤浩一 on Jazz of Japan | Brian McCrory

Hiroshi Fukutomi Quintet: Rings of Saturn

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi’s first album is Rings of Saturn from 2010. On this recording, the guitarist plays modern jazz compositions under the flag of his own quintet featuring Masahiro Yamamoto on alto and soprano sax, Koichi Sato on piano (also on Fukutomi’s 2014 followup Memory Stones), Hiroshi Ikejiri on bass, and Ryo Shibata on drums.

Fukutomi’s debut album runs for 54 minutes and features seven original compositions, six from Fukutomi and one from saxophonist Yamamoto. The songs are composed by Fukutomi to be platforms for interplay, where the front-most instruments of guitar, sax, and piano merge and relay with an intimate immediacy, rather than each musician stepping back to make room for longer periods of singular adlibs. As with great jazz combos, there’s close collaboration where all five members listen closely to one another, pick their moments to step forward or back, and raise or relax the tension with the right-timed notes and rhythms.

Ryosuke Hashizume Group: Side Two

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Saxophonist and composer Ryosuke Hashizume has released six albums with the Ryosuke Hashizume Group over nearly two decades. These albums feature Hashizume’s uniquely original compositions played by his long-running group. This group has mainly been a quintet (of sax, guitar, piano, bass, and drums) with many of the same members present throughout the years.

In particular, guitarist Motohiko Ichino and fretless electric bassist Ryoji Orihara have been a constant and large part of the sound of the group. They are brilliant electric partners to Hashizume’s breathy and sawtoothed acoustic sax sound (Hashizume also dips into electricity a bit when playing his sax as cycles and drones looped through a device, occasionally).

Koichi Sato: Embryo

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Hiroshi Fukutomi: Memory Stones

Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Memory Stones is the 2014 album from guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi, his second album after his debut Rings of Saturn (2010). On this 57-minute recording of Fukutomi’s original music, the guitarist leads a quartet featuring Koichi Sato on piano and Rhodes, Koji Yasuda on bass, and Ryo Noritake on drums.

With Fukutomi’s compositions and his guitar taking center stage, the quartet’s sound is definitely that of a jazz guitar leader’s band. The sound of the jazz guitar is varied, however, and his tone switches between mellow and fluid electric guitar sound to clear and articulate acoustic guitar, coloring the compositions with distinct personalities to suit the song style. Some guitar effects are also used tastefully to add textural layers while preserving the core sound of pure guitar expressiveness.

Rabbitoo: The Torch

Sun, 22 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Bungalow: Abstract Messages

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Ryosuke Hashizume Group: Acoustic Fluid

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Bungalow: Unseen Scenes

Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Like explorers on a caravan, Bungalow produces imaginative music on their third album Unseen Scenes from 2015, carving their unique path through new jazz and rhythms.

Compulsively rhythmic and compelling, this album is another fantastical journey through the nooks and crannies of modern jazz with exotic fringes. With Bungalow, creativity is in focus, and on Unseen Scenes this creativity often incorporates repeating riffs and loops of fresh drum patterns and evocative moods. Strands of music weave together to provide the fabric over which saxophone melodies arc and swoop. A combination of dense flavors, spicy accents, and lush spaces with some straight-ahead modern jazz as well.

Bungalow: Metropolitan Oasis

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Jazz quartet Bungalow issued an imaginative and flavorful debut album with Metropolitan Oasis in 2011. Striking and singular, the songs reward repeat listens by offering creative jazz compositions with stimulating blueprints. The songs ebb and flow with energy, grooves, and clever rhythms, where folk and ethnic influences converge with modern jazz, bop, classical, and free elements, pushing boundaries to reach new vistas.

Masahiro Yamamoto, an original member of Bungalow featured on their first two albums, plays alto sax with a warm, textured tone which bends and flutters with visceral energy while the band lays out arcane jazz sounds not confined to the genre. Whether on the free opener “Metropolitan Oasis”, the slinky rocker “Underpass”, the mysterious drama of “Human Lost”, or the elaborate pieces “Bastristurgisism” and “O.P.P.M.”, the album cleverly navigates and develops their art of sound with lovely constructions and comfortable escapism.

Rabbitoo: National Anthem of Unknown Country

Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The textured sound of Rabbitoo makes a lasting first impression on their debut album National Anthem of Unknown Country from 2014, a fusion of jazz, rock, and electronica influences.

The five-piece group led by guitarist and primary songwriter Motohiko Ichino produces otherworldly atmospheres with loops of sound and cascading sheets of melody set against precise rock and dance-inspired beats. The instruments riff and interlace, fitting together like puzzle pieces at times, an intense chorus at others, while swirling over underlying rhythmic grids for a dusky, spacey, trance-like aura.

Routine Jazz Sextet: Routine Jazz Sextet

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Routine Jazz Sextet from 2008 promotes genuine jazz from Tokyo with the flavor of 1950/60’s era jazz giants such as Horace Silver and Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Not just a throwback, the band honors the musical legacy while incorporating the youthful, modern sound and mindset of current jazz players from Japan.

Perhaps not well-known among standard jazz fans, the Routine Jazz Label from famed producer and DJ Kei Kobayashi gained international renown with “club jazz” compilations such as Schema, Deja Vu, and Ricky-Tick, beat-oriented music remixed with jazz and bossa nova samples for dance clubs and trance-leaning airwaves.

Daiki Yasukagawa Trio: Kanmai

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Like the expansive cover depicting a peaceful blue ocean and sky, jazz bassist Daiki Yasukagawa’s trio on Kanmai creates a mood of a rolling deep and lofty grace.

The album includes nine modern jazz tunes, most being original compositions from Yasukagawa, and one each from pianist Sato and drummer Hashimoto. Two standards are also included, a swingy, stylish “Long Ago And Far Away”, and a bowed-bass feature on “Greensleeves”, a delicate, sacred performance heavy with emotional weight.

Ryosuke Hashizume Group: Visible/Invisible

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Tokuhiro Doi Quartet: Amalthea

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Tokuhiro Doi’s Amalthea from 2011 presents a modern jazz quartet from Japan led by the evocative tones of jazz clarinet. Although jazz clarinet can prompt thoughts of bouncy big bands and classic swing music, this album veers more towards dark and mysterious shades that will interest fans of creative modern jazz.

Doi’s mature compositions embrace the sounds of jazz in various settings: mid-tempo walking jazz, energetic and frenetic jazz, and elegiac European classical sounds. Like many other modern recordings, facets of bebop, hard-bop, and cool jazz influences also surface effortlessly in the soulful music.

Koichi Sato: Utopia

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Utopia is the debut leader album for pianist Koichi Sato, who reaches for high standards in his original compositions and impressive performances. This is stimulating modern jazz performed by a piano trio not limited by standard jazz conventions, based in jazz tradition while incorporating some classical and pop influences as well.

The nine original songs on this album are full of lyrical freshness balanced with impeccable timing and a sensitive touch. The music covers territory from dream-fantasy jazz waltzes, Lennie Tristano-style post-bop, melancholy ballads, and groovy rock-beat uplifting music, all united with sense of the peace and comfort brought about by Sato’s poetic vision of utopia.

Ko Omura: Introspect

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Drummer Ko Omura leads the listener on his voyage of introspection on his debut album Introspect, portraying the colors and maps of his musical mind.

This 2011 recording features eight tracks: six original songs from Omura in his detailed, catchy style, unfolding story-like with depth and groovy accuracy. The music brims with fiery energy, passionate yet also containing also a smoldering, somber melancholy. Two of the tracks are group-created free jazz collaborations, splashes of color adding mystery and adventure. The recorded audio is also done beautifully, with separation of drums and cymbals gracefully captured with a lush live sound.

Bungalow: Past Life

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The jazz group Bungalow displays their original approach to modern art jazz on their second album, Past Life, from 2013. As a jazz quartet featuring airy alto sax and piano, double bass, and drums, the group incorporates creative musical elements such as the use of Indian tabla drums and subtle sound effects and processing, a bit similar to the style of the Swedish jazz group E.S.T.

Bungalow’s compositions are in focus here, and like modern songwriting from Wayne Shorter, the music differs from standard jazz patterns with interesting, well-constructed songs, featuring elements of upbeat swing, poetic and meditative calm, visceral rock and organically looping riffs, embellished with searching melodies and smart improvisation played brilliantly. This is well-balanced and addictive modern jazz that weaves deep musical grooves with imaginative compositions and skillful playing, reflecting future-facing sounds built on traditional music from Past Life.

Sumito Oi: Sumitty & The Funfair

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Sumitty & the Funfair is a 2015 release from drummer Sumito Oi and his band of merry music makers, assembling here to produce an original work of creatively poppy jazz. Not circus clown tomfoolery, but, rather, light and glittery music played with a cheerful buoyancy and sensitivity by improvisational jazz musicians. The theme is musical fun, wide-smiled mirth carried by a sweet nostalgia for amusement park ambiance.

As a drummer’s quartet, rhythm moderates the music delightfully, propulsive but never overpowering. Flutes with electric and acoustic instruments add evocative flavors, leading us through the fair and summoning musical images like childhood memories.

Koichi Sato: Melancholy of a Journey

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Bungalow: You Already Know

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

On Bungalow’s fourth album You Already Know (2017), the modern jazz group does what they do best with creative jazz, new ideas, and textured sounds. This album is rich with catchy ideas and incorporates elements of jazz groove, free jazz, Indian tabla drums, and electronic sound effects.

You Already Know is part of the band’s series of adventurous and atmospheric releases filled with strong hooks and compelling rhythms. While vamps and percussion anchor the music, shifting tempos, primal folk elements, dreamy improvisation, and some noise effects also factor in on tracks such as “Gravity Snap”, “Imagined Winter”, and the graceful title track. Whether you already know Bungalow’s music or not, this music does take you places.

Emiko Voice: Carta

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An elegant package inside and out, brimming with atmosphere. The outer package is a slim booklet, containing photography, a poem, and an essay. The music itself is a modern take on classic jazz songs with Japanese words and flavor sprinkled throughout, featuring excellent arrangements by pianist Koichi Sato.

Emiko’s voice is front-and-center and spans the gamut from quick instrumentesque aerobics to passionate crooning. Vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes, and an innovative stand-up drum set constitute the core of the group, and several other instrumentalists contribute to the album, with material ranging from dreamy and moody to light and shimmering.

Ryosuke Hashizume Group: Incomplete Voices

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Incomplete Voices is the latest release from the Ryosuke Hashizume Group, released in 2017. As with prior albums, this is a wonderful collection of carefully conceived modern jazz compositions showcasing the saxophonist’s concepts and the tight-knit group dynamics. Close attention is paid to the harmonic and rhythmic layers in the music with excitement built on climactic resolutions and striking moods.

The music is sleek, organic, and hypnotic at times. For example, track #3 “Synesthesia” is particularly magical as time and pulse slip and shift as the music develops; at other times, the group locks into a detailed groove, or opens up the framework and allows timekeeping to fade from the audio palette. The roomy improvisational passages are filled with emotional passion and rooted by the quintet’s empathy established through years of live and recording experience.