Yuki Arimasa Trio “Tell Me Where the Music Is” (Vega 2006)

Yuki Arimasa – piano

Yasuhiko “HACHI” Sato – bass

Dairiki Hara – drums

This superb piano trio shows why Arimasa is too busy around town to sit down and record. He has long been one of the first call pianists for some of the most elegant and engaging music made in Tokyo, so it is great that he finally has a CD out under his own name. His playing on this recording captures perfectly his harmonic and melodic sense, which is lovely, original and totally engaging.

“My Shining Hour” starts the CD with an upbeat classic with the trio swinging through the changes as if they’d been born with them. The next two originals by Arimasa are especially lovely, “3-4-1” a tricky mid-tempo number with nimble chord changes and nice rhythmic interplay. “Voices” is stunningly pretty, even though its complexity and nuance keep you leaning towards the speakers to catch it all.

“Send in the Clowns” is given an especially delicate treatment. In Arimasa’s hands, the song becomes as fragile as tissue, with notes falling and floating with softness and care. “What Kind of Fool Am I” also takes a rhythmic approach that comes from deep inside the emotional register rather than from the metronome. That fitting of piano to feeling is what Arimasa does so completely and movingly.

The other three originals, the title track, “DELF” and “The Bitter life of Scarecrow” combine feeling with flow. The way of phrasing is lovely and genuine. Arimasa has a very unique way of continually bending and folding the chords to find more and more beauty inside. The unhurried feel of the title track is especially reflective and pretty. The subtle shifts in harmony that he layers on at each successive musical turn are strikingly original and utterly natural. Each of his phrasings is confident, cool and genuine.

Sato and Hara, longtime trio members, know right where Arimasa is going, and have the sense to support him at each note of the way. What Arimasa’s own trio expresses so well is the marriage between melody and feeling, harmony and expressive depth. The trio offers no tricks, no bells or whistles, but instead the sheer beauty of the song, which they uncover on each and every track.