Taeko Kurita

Taeko Kurita’s Ko-tsu-ko-tsu is a solo piano album from 2012 featuring eight of her original songs. In addition to being a member of other groups such as jazz trios, many of her earlier releases as a leader are showcases for her solo piano compositions and improvisation. In fact, one of her most recent albums is simply called SOLO 5, mentioned in the previous article on her piano-drums album DUO. Like that album, Ko-tsu-ko-tsu is another great pick from her past catalog. ...

Pianist Taeko Kurita and drummer Akira Sotoyama present us with Duo, a 2024 live album recorded in 2023 at “Shicho Shitsu” (Listening Room), an experimental music venue in Tokyo’s Jimbocho district. In true improvisational form, the duo met with minimal prearrangements in order to let the mood, music, room, and audience guide their performance. The concert becomes a selection of ten of pianist Kurita’s compositions, framed by the piano and decorated by the drums. ...

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. ...

Japanese jazz musician Yuko Miyawaki’s debut album Song of Flower from 2011 brims with understated calm, burning steadily through original, mellow sounds and sparkling improvisation. Miyawaki’s trumpet and flugelhorn centers her core jazz quartet, adding a fifth member on tenor sax to embellish her jazz themes with sweet harmonies and cutting solos on four tracks. In addition to her compelling horn playing, Miyawaki’s contributions also include original songs and arrangements, all showing a creative style with modern themes calmly developing over sharp grooves with fascinating frameworks. The selected cover songs include a great modern jazz version of the Japanese folk song “Sakura”, the atmospheric latin tune “El Choclo”, “Summer Night” in uptempo swing, and a tender duo with guest pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi (joining on five songs) on the heartful ballad “I’m Glad There Is You”. ...