Shinpei Ruike

Duo is the latest album from trumpeter Shinpei Ruike and pianist George Nakajima, two Tokyo-based jazz musicians who hail from the same area in northern Japan, along with many of the people who helped to create this recording. Like their previous release N.40° (a reference to their mutual hometown of Hachinohe), the music on Duo is atmospheric, moody, and mostly dark. The sound of Ruike’s trumpet is extremely evocative and textured. Like colors from a paint pallet, he mixes tones from husky to muted to bell-clear as his inspiration unfolds. Layers of emotion surface and mingle in his trumpet sound, as captivating as an audible patina cultivated through age and exposure like the surface of a brass horn. ...

Vocalist Naoko Akimoto’s debut release No One Else is a seven-song introduction to the popular singer, a presentation of standard jazz and Japanese pop arranged with care and performed by top musicians from Tokyo. The arrangements are nice, particularly on the opening track “Moondance” which opens with a deep bass, piano, and vibes setting up a grove for Akimoto to lead the listener through the atmospheric drama of the tune. The decorated arrangements include vocal harmonies with trumpet, flute, and other instruments adding beautiful layers to the music. ...

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. ...

Art music from two musician artists, N.40° is sweet and stimulating, mellow and manic, alternating between states on this compelling album. The emotive trumpet-and-piano duo of Shinpei Ruike and George Nakajima delivers atmospheric standards as well as boundary-pushing free improvisations. With moments of both comfortable and experimental jazz, the pieces alternate from limpid and romantic to free and offbeat wild abandon; fun improvisational pieces are placed like splashes of color between beautiful jazz songs (“The Nearness of You”, “Pure Imagination”, “Alone, Alone and Alone”). ...

Takako Yamada’s The Flow of Time features 11 original compositions from the pianist, a bold collection of exciting moods and modern compositions in adventurous style. Starting assertively with a modern jazz/rock feel, electric guitar and acoustic piano lay out high opening stakes for an album filled with dramatic creativity. The songs explore moments of musical sensitivity, relaxed swing, Monkish joy and freedom, and bluesy contemplation, with full sounds of crystal piano tones, warm electric guitar, bright drum work and deep, dark bass anchoring the group sound. ...