Circlepoint - Kei Akagi Trio

Circlepoint (Time & Style Jazz 2014)

Kei Akagi - piano
Shunya Wakai - bass
Tamaya Honda - drums

 They did it again. And it is a very good thing they did.The stylish, sophisticated furniture design company Time & Style and the stylish, sophisticated pianist Key Akagi collaborated once more. The result, a stylish, sophisticated album, Circlepoint.Ok, let’s assume that you don’t know about Kei Akagi: He was born in Japan, but lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for part of his childhood, until he moved back to Japan at the age of 12. He later returned to the United States at 22.  He is the Chancellor Professor of Music at the University of California, Irvine and is based in the Californian jazz scene, with regular tours through Japan.The album release day was Christmas at Time & Style's shop in Tokyo Midtown. The atmosphere there, surrounded by style, sipping a glass of good wine, and celebrating the holiday was the best way to experience the performance of Kei Akagi's trio, savoring each note of that delicious music. The Time & Style space creates the perfect atmosphere for a live show like Akagi's, comfortable, calming and yet very intense.For this release, the amazing trio has Kei Akagi on piano, young talent Shunya Wakai on bass, and veteran and long time collaborator, drummer Tamaya Honda.The album is a collection of 10 songs, each one with a particular story organised in a way to tell us part of Kei’s history. The songs recall moments in his evolution as a musician working in the depths of jazz's improvisational power. The songs circle to points in his experience with former bandmates, important friends and meaningful places. All compositions are by Akagi, except for “Three Way Mirror” by the bassist Mark Egan, another former collaborator of Akagi's.Some of the songs performance sounds like pure improvisation, except for the parts where the conventions are very clear. That is the way that Akagi likes to compose, keeping everything sounding as if it is improvised. The trio sounds precise without losing spontaneity, practiced without losing the freshness of a first take, steeped in the past but awake in the present. That kind of musical balance is a characteristic that only great musicians, like this trio, know how to work.Circlepoint is a recording that is well composed, well arranged, and well performed. It's powerful, intense and pure pleasure.