Sayaka Kishi Trio: Life Is Too Great

Sep 5, 2019

Expressing an exuberance for life with an original jazz spirit, Life Is Too Great from the Sayaka Kishi Trio is a vivid recording, full of variety and infused with the pure music spirit of Sayaka Kishi.

Active in many groups and collaborations, Kishi returns to the classic piano trio form on Life Is Too Great and leads a powerhouse jazz trio, showcasing talent and songwriting with new original tunes, with the ever-hardy, invigorating Ryoji Orihara on fretless bass and crisp rhythmic master Akira Yamada on drums.

From the swinging modern-jazz opener “DON PAPA”, the trio sparks a fire, and with such variety on the album highlights abound: the smooth fusion groove “Kin No Doto”, the darkly dramatic and tense “Madoka”, and the snappy up-beat samba “Palette” are all addictively ear-catching tunes. In addition, the album includes cleverly-arranged jazz on “I Have A Dream”, Sayaketts-style funky pop jazz on “Trip! or Tweet?”, and honestly sweet ballads on “Life Is Too Great” and “Dai Ni No Furosato”, a great album-closer full of emotion and charm.

In addition to her eight original offerings, three cover songs are included: Chick Corea’s “La Fiesta”, Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence”, and the jazz standard “Guilty”, performed as a dreamy piano solo.

On Life Is Too Great, Kishi’s tunes and performances are great and full of life, prismatic and memorable, befitting this polished modern jazz trio.