The jazz album Blending Tone is the 2012 debut release from the Tokyo-based Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet. Saxophone player and leader Yoshimoto recorded this with a tightly bound group of musicians including Aaron Choulai on piano, Takuya Sakazaki on bass, and Shun Ishiwaka on drums, working together to blend their tones while staying on top of Yoshimoto’s music.

The CD version of this album includes ten tracks running at 54 minutes of mostly original music from Yoshimoto. The popular jazz standard “Body and Soul” is the sole cover tune, played as duo of piano and sax as a gentle closing.

The music on Blending Tone is contemporary jazz with a modern, open feeling build on the confidence and closeness that the members of the quartet exhibit with one another.

Throughout, this is a finely attuned album that rewards paying attention to the details. The musician’s individual solos seem to positively search for new expressions, pushing their improvisations for creativity as much to satisfy their own voices as well as to connect with the other players. As leader, Akihiro gets most of the time in the spotlight for his extended solos, and pianist Aaron Choulai gets an almost equal share and solos on nearly every track. The two partners even have an back-and-forth trading session in the greater part of #7 “Dark Matter” before drummer Ishiwaka and bassist Sakazaki take over the music.

Through the themes and adlibs, the locked-in band seems to naturally push one another to heights of greater ambition and near abandon. For balance, tracks #3 “Pale Green” and #10 “Body and Soul” are two ballads that alight to ground during their slower moments, essential for the coming down to calmer settings within the journey though the adventurous terrain.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Toshihiko Hoshino’s original Japanese liner notes.)

The first time I heard Akihiro Yoshimoto was in late November 2009, at the live jazz club Apple Jump which had just opened. The quartet was built from the Jun Furuya Trio, with Kunpei Nakabayashi on bass and Ryo Shibuya on drums, and I was really impressed by the performance. The tenor produced a rolling groove that had nicely thick tone stacked with short phrases. My ears were completely tuned into their fresh contemporary sound that was centered on their unique originals. Then, a giant foreigner who was sitting alone at a corner table joined the band, sitting in for one song. That was Aaron Choulai, the pianist who plays on this album. With just one song, I was knocked out by his brilliant playing and novel ideas that overturned the usual stereotypes. I can still vividly remember the excitement I felt that night, as I walked back to Ikebukuro station, like witnessing the prenatal stirrings of something new as I thought “What I just heard was unbelievable.”

I’ll briefly introduce Akihiro Yoshimoto. He was born in Kobe in 1980. In 2004, he entered Boston’s Berklee College of Music. After graduating from Berklee, he moved to Tokyo and started performing. In 2007, he was awarded the grand prize in the band category at the Yokohama Jazz Promenade Competition. In autumn 2009, he first played with Aaron as a member of the Australian-Japanese crossover band the Aaron Choulai Sextet at an event called Tokyo JAZZ 2009 - Australian Jazz Night. In spring 2010 he played with Italian trumpeter Max Ionata who came to Japan. In fall of that year, he played as a member of the Aaron Choulai Quintet on an Australian tour. In 2001 he performed as leader of a sextet at the third Summer Jazz Revolution event. In summer of that year, his other activities including touring with the band of mainstay bassist Isao Suzuki’s band OMA SOUND and earning the strong trust of players including those from his generation through to veteran players.

It’s undeniable that contemporary jazz has the image of being difficult to understand. The dark, edgy sound can sometimes give a cold impression. I also very much agree with the inclination to wanting to hear hot jazz that simply says “yeah!” The allure of Yoshimoto’s tenor sound is that he can play modern contemporary jazz to deep blues without any sense of conflict. He creates a natural resonance with listeners through his throaty tone and cutting-edge phrases. His tenor captivates everyone from staunch hard bop elders to discriminating contemporary jazz enthusiasts.

When it comes to expressing his personal sound, there is probably no one more inspiring to Akihiro Yoshimoto than Aaron Choulai. At the same time as he formed his quartet with Aaron, they also began performing together as a duo. He had become an indispensable musical partner. Aaron Choulai was born in Papua New Guinea in 1982. He won a number of awards in Australia and was regarded as one of the most promising young players. In New York, he performed with musicians including Clarence Penn and James Genus, and released the albums Place (2004) and RANU (2009) on the Sunnyside label. He actively performs in Japan, New York, Australia, and in places all over the world. With his excellent time sense, sensitive harmonies, beautiful tone, and comping that can sometimes even seem wicked, he’s a pianist worthy of being called a rare genius.

With Blending Tone as the album title, it contains the meaning that each individual sound is blended into a single musical piece. The opening “di di” symbolizes this. As the theme is played by a trio [of sax, bass, drums], the moment Aaron’s piano enters, the sound’s landscape changes completely. Indeed, you can call it the moment that captures where the individual sounds mix together and change into a singular band sound. On the dreamy ballad “Pale Green”, the intertwining of the tenor’s melody and Aaron’s comping is breathtaking. “How About This Cat?” is outstanding, as Aaron’s piano and Ishiwaka’s aggressive drums back the strong and continuous blowing of the tenor as the theme completely changes from mysterious to thrilling. More highlights to listen for include Sakazaki’s foundation of solid bass lines that support the band, and 19-year-old drumming prodigy Shun Ishiwaka, whose playing is a combination of both aggression and finesse.

The prenatal stirrings that I felt in November 2009 developed over a period of two and a half years and was delivered to me in the form of this album. This recording retains that sense of impact I received at the time and captures an even deeper combination together with Aaron. This is an album that will become an important piece in the history of contemporary jazz in Japan.

Toshihiko Hoshino 星野利彦 / Music Writer

Obi Notes

Young, fierce tenor saxophonist Akihiro Yoshimoto with his quartet releases his long awaited debut album Blending Tone!

Blending Tone by Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet

• Akihiro Yoshimoto - tenor sax
• Aaron Choulai - piano
• Takuya Sakazaki - bass
• Shun Ishiwaka - drums

Released in 2012 on Orbit Records as ORB-1001.

Japanese names: 吉本章紘 Yoshimoto Akihiro アーロン・チューライ Choulai Aaron 坂崎拓也 Sakazaki Takuya 石若駿 Ishiwaka Shun

Audio and Video

• “How About This Cat?” (track #4) — live at Kamome quartet version (ts/p/b/d) #1: (alternate link)

• “How About This Cat?” (track #4) — live at Sometime quartet version (ts/p/b/d) #2:

• “di di” (track #1) — live duo version (ts/b)
• “Boston Subway” (track #2) — live solo version (ss)
• “Pale Green” (track #3) — live duo version (ts/ts)
• “Pale Green” (track #3) — live trio version (ts/b/d)
• “Enpitsu Hiko” (track #5) — live trio version (ss/ts/b)
• Streaming version of Blending Tone (Bandcamp digital album)

Yoshimoto AkihiroBlending Tone, by Akihiro Yoshimoto Quartet

• Excerpt from track #1: “di di”

Jazz of Japan #356 • Mar 15, 2026 • Brian McCrory

Related albums: Moving Color (2015), Oxymoron (2017), Humadope 2 (2019), 64 Charlesgate (2022), II (2022)