岸淑香

Saxophone player Toshiki Abe’s first album is titled The Simplicity. It was released in 2022 under the name of his band the Toshiki Abe Life Memory Project, a trio formed just one year early as a channel for Abe’s original music. This group features Abe on sax, Sayaki Kishi on organ, and Tetsunori Morinaga on drums, resulting in a funky sax/organ/drums sound that works perfectly with Abe’s soulful compositions. While Abe’s band name “Life Memory Project” sounds as if it could be a type of memorial service product that adjoins death and melancholy (the mistaken assumption I originally had), it has a completely different meaning centered around life. The concept represents his goal of capturing and directing the daily events and life changes through his music. It’s similar to how a dairy is used to record the days’ happenings, but instead of capturing the past in notes, Abe directs his music and life forward by intention through his compositions, recorded music, and live events. It’s like a forward-looking planning system specifically constructed to pay attention to the immeasurably special value of each day. ...

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. ...

While leading and participating in different groups through the years, musicians Hiroe Kobayashi and Sayaka Kishi have also played together on various projects incorporating standard jazz, pop, and Latin genres, and even Disney and movie songs. In 2022, the duo released their first full-length album entitled Luar under the band name Sul Madrugada. This name, Portuguese for “southern dawn”, together with the title Luar for “moonlight” beautifully describes the atmospheric direction the pair gravitates towards with this Latin jazz project. On this release, the duo is devoted to creating South American music in a package that embraces nature through the icons of the sun and moon. ...

The piano and cello duo Arco released Live at Yoncha in 2018, a performance recorded at a live music cafe bar in Tokyo. With six songs running 36 minutes, the set captures the feeling of being there as the two musicians blend jazz, classical, rock, Latin, and Japanese sensibilities. At live events, Arco’s magnetic charm never fails to rouse the crowd with their thought-out arrangements of touching music with irresistible good cheer. The duo connects with talent and pure sentiment, folding chords and melodies with deep feeling through classical/pop hybrids and moments of freewheeling fun. ...

The piano and cello duo Arco released their second album Birth in 2019, two years after their debut Asymmetry, showing grace and refinement in a matured and eternally sunny outlook. Opening with overdubbed cello playing a classical Bach theme, the duo kicks into their otherwise all-original songs featuring their airy style vibrating with positivity and passion. The duo is practiced at producing heady pop with classical influences and a definite pulse. Kishi and Sano’s originals are satisfyingly balanced, with moods shifting like wind through the trees with endearing waltzes, fiery Latin movements, and beautifully poignant and sweet melodies. Although the duo focuses on piano and cello arrangements, some minimal additions of percussion clappers and melodion keyboard add spice to enhance the pure music experience. ...

Expressing an exuberance for life with an original jazz spirit, Life Is Too Great from the Sayaka Kishi Trio is a vivid recording, full of variety and infused with the pure music spirit of Sayaka Kishi. Active in many groups and collaborations, Kishi returns to the classic piano trio form on Life Is Too Great and leads a powerhouse jazz trio, showcasing talent and songwriting with new original tunes, with the ever-hardy, invigorating Ryoji Orihara on fretless bass and crisp rhythmic master Akira Yamada on drums. ...

At times light and carefree, yet also deeply and seriously musical, Sayaka Kishi’s “pure music” spirit shines beautifully on Colors. While the pianist is a vibrant part of many collaborations covering standard jazz, pop, classical, and Latin fusion among others, here with her group Sayaketts the trio focuses on a fusion of electric funky jazz and R&B pop music amid calmer moments and heart-warming pop-styled piano jazz. About half of the 13 songs on this album are upbeat, funky, and energized with the sounds of keyboards, piano, electric bass, and drums: glittery music full of energetic live and rock beats. Aside from the fun jams, other songs are charmingly cute and positive (“Iris”, “GAME”) with others crafted to be deeply serious and dramatic scene-stealing compositions (“Dilemma”, “Tegami”, “Toki No Itazura”, “Guzen No Waltz”). While the mood shifts are frequent, the variety of colors explored leaves a rich and lasting impression of fun, welcoming, and engaging music. ...

Pianist Sayaki Kishi and cellist Mayumi Sano released their first album together under the moniker Arco with Asymmetry in 2017. The pair’s music consists of original songs with a single Bach composition, all played in lovely and skillful arrangements. With more than a slight touch of classical elegance, the music spans various moods with verve: upbeat, fresh, somber, and refined. Although it may be apt to call this music classical-pop or pop-classical rather than typical jazz, the improvisational spirit and composed musicianship are definitely on display and quite enjoyable. ...

Featuring Te, a 2014 release from pianist Sayaka Kishi, is a fun and bright collection of original solo piano tunes with some guest musicians contributing as well. This album’s printed title feat.手 (“Featuring Hands”) fittingly describes the pianist’s concept, to create a fun jazz album showcasing original compositions for piano (and hands) with jazz, pop, and classical influences. As the songs play out, one gets the feeling of dipping into Kishi’s deep store of originals, ranging from upbeat energy to comfortable dreaminess with several musical genres melded together. Along with her compositions, the album closes with a graceful rendition of the traditional ballad “Danny Boy”. ...