Hiroaki Mizutani

The Goat on a Peak is a 2023 album from Ghost Peak, a band formed in 2022 by guitarist Shinji Miyazaki with Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Taeko Kurita on piano, and Hiroaki Mizutani on bass. Guitarist and leader Miyazaki combines his background of modern jazz, improvisation, and a four-year stay in New York, with his jazz, rock, and avant-garde influences on his second Ghost Peak album. Ghost Peak’s The Goat on a Peak contains five of Miyazaki’s original compositions and was released on the heels of their first release Ghost Peak 1. The audio for these two albums was recorded at a live concert in Kobe in 2023. While the first release was an online-only streaming/digital download, this second album was released as a compact disc with a different set of songs. ...

Jazz singer Atomi Hamada releases This is Atomi, a five-track debut featuring songs she has loved as jazz instrumental standards. Here, using her voice as an instrument, she adds a fresh dimension to songs that some listeners may have heard only instrumentally before. This is intimate, close-quarters jazz, with piano and bass backing up the vocals for a soft mellow mood. Starting with a quiet dynamic, Hamada sings a wistful “Round Midnight” before moving to a relaxed “Speak No Evil” and a cheery “All The Things You Are”. She wraps up the five-track album with a catchy “Ladies in Mercedes” and a reconstructed “Confirmation” to close the set on a bebop high. ...