Hikari Ichihara: Sara Smile
Sara Smile is the second album from trumpeter Hikari Ichihara, released in 2006. This nine-track album is an alluring mix...
Kazumi Ikenaga & Taihei Asakawa: NordNote
NordNode is a 2020 album from drummer Kazumi Ikenaga and pianist Taihei Asakawa, with ten tracks and fifty-five minutes of...
Yuki Ito: Retattanni no Mori
Retattanni no Mori (Birch Tree Forest) is a 2019 solo album from bassist Yuki Ito. Over the album’s six tracks...
Reiko Yamamoto: The Square Pyramid
Reiko Yamamoto’s The Square Pyramid is a jazz record built around her vivid and precise vibraphone sound. With excitement heightened...
Miwo: Tranquillo
Jazz singer MIWO’s first album is entitled Tranquillo from 2020. This fifty-one-minute album delivers a sincere and straightforward set of...
Salt Peanuts
Salt Peanuts jazz club, located near Ekoda and Shin-Egota stations in Tokyo, Japan
Otohito Fuse Trio: Isolated
Isolated is a 2024 album from the Otohito Fuse Trio, a piano-bass-drums jazz group of popular and in-demand young Japanese...
Blue Note Tokyo
Blue Note Tokyo jazz club, located near Omote-Sando station in Tokyo, Japan
Erisa Ogawa: Where Have U Been?
Erisa Ogawa (ERiSA) is a flutist, voice percussionist, and composer whose second album, /Where Have U Been? (/2019) is a...
Koen-Dori Classics
Koen-Dori Classics jazz club, located near Shibuya station in Tokyo, Japan (temporarily closed)
Noriko Satomi: Project-N
Project-N is the debut album from violinist Noriko Satomi, a classically trained violinist and “Nissan Presents Jazz Japan 2019” award...
Takumi Seino & Motohiko Ichino: Frozen Dust
Frozen Dust is a live recording that captures guitarists Takumi Seino and Motohiko Ichino playing improvised jazz during their first...
Hitomi Nishiyama Trio: Calling
Among the close to thirty album releases from pianist and composer Hitomi Nishiyama’s catalog, Calling (2021) is the third album...
Satin Doll
Satin Doll jazz club, located near Roppongi station in Tokyo, Japan (permanently closed)
Bon Courage
Bon Courage jazz club, located near Yotsuya station in Tokyo, Japan
eFreydut: Fairway
Fairway is a new Japanese jazz album recorded last year in New York and released in Japan just last month....
Expression
Expression co-working & jazz club, located near Jimbocho station in Tokyo, Japan
Nami Kano: Mawsim
Saxophonist and composer Nami Kano has just released a long-awaited album mawsim with her group of the same name today...
Jabuticaba: Jabuticaba
Jabuticaba is the self-titled debut record from pianist Mikiko Nagatake and saxophonist Nami Kano, two players active in the modern-day...
Naoko Tanaka: Appreciation
Appreciation is pianist and composer Naoko Tanaka’s 2022 jazz release, her latest in a series of exciting new albums from...
Chihiro Yamanaka: Lach Doch Mal
Pianist Chihiro Yamanaka’s thrilling series of jazz albums continues with her fifth audio release Lach Doch Mal, released in 2006...
Jazz Spots of Japan
This is a brief overview of some of the general types of places that you may find in Japan, to...
Hiroshi Fukutomi: Memory Stones
Memory Stones is the 2014 album from guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi, his second album after his debut Rings of Saturn (2010)....
B-flat
B-flat jazz club, located near Akasaka station in Tokyo, Japan
Polyglot: Talk, Vol. 1
Polyglot is drummer Ko Omura, pianist Steve Barry, and bassist Kosuke Ochiai, an Australian-Japanese jazz trio project whose first album...
Ami Fukui Trio: Nova Manhã
Pianist Ami Fukui continues her original jazz journey with Nova Manhã, her fourth leader album from 2022 with eight tracks...
Keisuke Nakamura: Humadope 2
Humadope 2 from trumpeter Keisuke Nakamura features his quintet playing modern jazz originals with unsupressible energy. With a slightly different...
Kohaku
Kohaku jazz club, located near Shibuya station in Tokyo, Japan
Yuka Yanagihara Trio: Inner Views
Pianist Yuka Yanagihara’s second piano trio album is Inner Views from 2019, where she plays eight of her original songs...
Mase Hiroko Quintet: First Contact
“Hard bop jazz aimed towards the universe” might be a good way to introduce soprano saxophonist Hiroko Mase’s debut album...