Ami Fukui: Amizm
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Ami Fukui: Amizm
Ami Fukui’s second album Amizm advertises “Mellow and Groovy” on the label, and delivers a nice package of funky, Electrik Band-styled jazz. In Fukui’s jazz piano trio format, piano and electric keyboards, slick, electric bass, and exciting, bright drumming all work to successfully imbue a classic fusion jazz sound to the trio’s modern music.
Indeed, the best of the upbeat, longer songs (“Lion’s Empire”, “Absinthe”, “Jungle City”) go well with these sounds, building on Fukui’s trademark compositional creativity, using catchy melodies and transitions, joyful rhythms, and groovy riffs to great dramatic effect.
The album opens and closes softly with Fukui’s melodic piano touch setting up the mood, opening with a gentle prelude and closing with a relaxing, soft-rockish lullaby. Through a blend of soulful piano playing and vivid electric-based songs, the album is playfully mischievous, with one 30-second drum-feature riff curiously inserted among the tracks, and three other tracks (“Eccentric Blues No. 1”, 2, and 3) essentially forming a larger piece, a loose-yet-composed groovy jam interwoven between other tracks on the album.
Amizm by Ami Fukui
Ami Fukui - piano, Clavinet, Rhodes, CP-80, synth
Yoshihito "P" Koizumi - bass
Yasushi Fukumori - drums
Released in 2013 on Peace Bass Records as PBRS-0002.
Japanese names: Ami Fukui 福井亜実 Yoshihito "P" Koizumi 小泉P克人 Yasushi Fukumori 福森康
Audio and Video
Excerpt from "Absinthe", track 4 on this album: