Hara Dairiki Trio: You’ve Changed

Jazz of Japan #39 • Apr 12, 2018 • Brian McCrory

The Hara Dairiki Trio creates a jubilant atmosphere on You’ve Changed, playing choice jazz standards from the bebop and straight-ahead jazz songbook.

The drum-led trio creates a live sound, bright and open, in a chord-less configuration consisting of drums, bass, and alto sax. The stripped-down sound creates both purity and rawness that pulls the listener straight into the music, loose and fun and in control, with soaring, bebop saxophone fluidly soaring over the solid double bass and drum foundation.

The players are confident as experienced musicians who know each other well, grooving and swinging with playful quotes and spontaneous interplay spicing up their collaboration.

The album has six standards including Thelonious Monk’s “Four In One” and Charlie Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha”, with one short 45-second drum improvisation interlude before the final track, John Coltrane’s spirited “Chasin’ The Trane”. This is pure jazz played with a relaxed feeling, evoking an experience like being invited to a high-quality jazz session in a cozy jazz bar.

You’ve Changed by Hara Dairiki Trio

• Dairiki Hara - drums
• Atsushi Ikeda - alto sax
• Yasushi Yoneki - bass

Released in 2009 on Anturtle Tune as ANTX-4004.

Japanese names: Dairiki Hara 原大力 Atsushi Ikeda 池田篤 Yasushi Yoneki 米木康志

Audio and Video

• A performance of the Hara Dairiki Trio playing live in Tokyo in 2009