Wataru Hamasaki

Listen to My Blues is a 2025 jazz release from saxophonist Wataru Hamasaki and pianist Akane Matsumoto. The two musicians are known for performing together many times at live events and recording sessions, including as co-leaders of their Big Catch Quartet, a classy orthodox jazz unit with a soulful, big jazz sound. Additionally, each musician is popular individually as a leader of their own groups, like with Hamasaki’s Encounter quartet, Matsumoto’s jazz piano trios, and as members of many other bands and combinations. ...

Encounter is the first album from co-leaders pianist Hideaki Hori and saxophonist Wataru Hamasaki, released in 2008. Since then, in addition to their other bands and activities, the two jazz musicians have continued to perform together and release many albums under the group name Encounter. This first Encounter album is bursting with energy, and it feels like the inspiration that each player gets from the others irresistibly drives them to reach for the stars. The four members of Encounter—Wataru Hamasaki on sax and flute, Hideaki Hori on piano, Hiroshi Takase on bass, and Junji Hirose on drums—are always busy touring and playing in this regular group lineup for their live shows. In addition, as a special guest on their first album, Satoshi Takino plays electric guitar on three tracks. ...

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. ...

Jazz vocalist Mie Joké’s 2018 release Etrenne is a fun and fancy swing jazz outing, a fresh throwback to classic vocal jazz recordings. Like the best of jazz lover’s disks, this collection hits the mark with a great selection of familiar jazz standards performed with a loving touch. Vocalist Joké purrs atop her jazz group with a confident grace, a breathy tank of soulful emotion and romance. Her solidly swinging jazz combos feature accomplished veteran musicians, with a different group performing for “Side A” and “Side B of the recording as if on a classic jazz vinyl LP. ...

“Swing & Blues” is the name of the game with /Big Catch/’s jazz quartet album from 2013. Undoubtedly, the concept of a jazz sax giant meeting a piano trio is a tried and true formula on classic jazz albums (“Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson” and “Coleman Hawkins with the Red Garland Trio” come to mind), and this quartet upholds the tradition properly with a big sound and spirit, singing and swinging, bluesy and fun all-around good-feeling jazz. ...