This CD of big band jazz is quite unusual. Jazz musicians usually turn to passion or love affairs for inspiration, but this recording turns to Japanese history.
Read More
A few instruments and an endless supply of creative energy are what produce the best soundscapes.
Read More
EQ has been making straight-on, soul-satisfying jazz for a long time. This release finds them at the top of their game.
Read More
With a mixture of elegance and energy, the trio delivers ten originals that are a pleasure to listen to.
Read More
She’s not out to impress, she’s out to create beauty.
Read More
Bloodest Saxophone jumps into the beat and squeals and groans with so much pleasure it’s impossible not to be infected with their lust for a musical good time.
Read More
Yoshio Suzuki’s excellent release, “Generation Gap,” starts out not with a generation gap but a cultural gap: traditional Japanese wadaiko drums bumping under a dirty blues trumpet line.
Read More
The back cover of Mike Henderson’s excellent new blues CD is taken up with a photo of a 1959 Fender Bassman guitar amp. The amp’s tubes must be glowing red and sweating hard.
Read More
The outing is a straight-ahead gem.
Read More
Country blues fingerpicked on acoustic guitar has no better player in Japan than Tokio Uchida.
Read More
Put simply, his playing creates stunningly gorgeous music.
Read More
Yamamoto’s sleek, straight-ahead CD kicks off with “Bohemia After Dark” and stays in that cool bop groove for the next ten cuts. The recording lays down robust
Read More
This interlinked set of compositions dig right into various grooves that let everyone in the band lean forward and play. The original composition, more one composition then the ten listings suggest, flow
Read More
After the first listen to “Dojo,” I was pleased to see the old Japanese phrase that roughly translates as “Volume One.” Inside the powerful music these two intense musical personalities create on “Dojo”
Read More
Not only are the titles taken from European places, artworks and experiences, but the sounds themselves are like a travel journey of melodies, rhythms, impressions and feelings.
Read More
She jumped onstage for the last song in the evening, a chance always saved by musicians for their most promising students. She has made good on that early promise and then some.
Read More
This lush, gorgeous piano trio recording is a stellar example of how precise music can also be stunningly beautiful. The tone is everything here.
Read More
Tributes are one way that lesser known musicians can establish their credentials, but Jesse Van Ruller has plenty of cred already. He’s a guitarist’s guitarist whose ease of playing makes him a delight.
Read More