清水勇博

Rewinding from the previous article on Hitomi Nishiyama’s Echo from 2024, and connecting the dots (re: Dot, 2023), relistening to Hitomi Nishiyama Trio’s I’m Missing You from 2004 provides a fascinating reflection. I’m Missing You is the prolific composer’s first album, which quickly sold out as she was gaining recognition for her distinctive jazz piano compositional style, a novel approach that melded her Japanese classical musical training, studies in jazz piano, and her affection for European modern jazz. The original 2004 album contained eight songs, all composed by Nishiyama, and was re-released in 2007 with three bonus tracks from around the same period. It came to be regarded as her breakthrough first trio recording, released 20 years before her latest CD Echo, and with more than two dozen albums released in between. ...

Toys is pianist Sumire Kuribayashi’s debut leader album from 2014. Since then, the spirited musician has been on a tear, with several more leader albums released from her own projects as well as collaborations with a variety of Japanese and international musicians. With Toys, Kuribayashi plays nine tracks on the forty-eight-minute album, with five of her own songs and four beloved covers arranged together in a lively display of her musical vision. Whatever Toys may mean as a concept title (hinted at in the Obi Notes), it’s a playful album that works as a perfect medium for her musical worldview. ...

This 2016 album simply entitled Live from Hitomi Nishiyama’s Parallax piano trio marks 10 years since her label debut Cubium in 2006. With various projects and albums released under her name, this is the third release for her Parallax group, an edgier, groovier, and rhythmically-energized jazz piano trio. Recorded live over two nights at the Creole jazz bar in Kobe, the eight songs feature her original compositions plus a rearranged “My Favorite Things”, with a new pulse and layers added to the popular standard. ...