Memory Stones is the 2014 album from guitarist Hiroshi Fukutomi, his second album after his debut Rings of Saturn (2010). On this 57-minute recording of Fukutomi’s original music, the guitarist leads a quartet featuring Koichi Sato on piano and Rhodes, Koji Yasuda on bass, and Ryo Noritake on drums. With Fukutomi’s compositions and his guitar taking center stage, the quartet’s sound is definitely that of a jazz guitar leader’s band. The sound of the jazz guitar is varied, however, and his tone switches between mellow and fluid electric guitar sound to clear and articulate acoustic guitar, coloring the compositions with distinct personalities to suit the song style. Some guitar effects are also used tastefully to add textural layers while preserving the core sound of pure guitar expressiveness. ...

B-flat is a solid jazz bar located near a Tokyo business neighborhood. This respectable live spot opened in 2001 near Tokyo’s Akasaka TBS television station “Big Hat” and Akasaka Biz Tower. Given the neighborhood, this is a great choice for the many business people and foreigners who work in and visit the area. It’s easy to imagine office workers, after a long day of meetings, popping in for the comfortable atmosphere, live music, and a round of drinks. ...

Polyglot is drummer Ko Omura, pianist Steve Barry, and bassist Kosuke Ochiai, an Australian-Japanese jazz trio project whose first album Talk, Vol. 1 was released in 2020. Each member contributes original music for the 58-minute album’s eight tracks, with five from the pianist, two from the drummer, and one from the bassist. Similar to great jazz trios like those of Bill Evans and others, equal partnership is apparent as each member participates actively in the group sound to fill the space with cooperative creativity. While Barry’s piano is the leading voice for many of the theme statements, Omura’s drums and Ochiai’s bass follow and influence the twists, turns, and accents of the multi-cornered melody lines, resulting in a full and fascinating sound. ...

Pianist Ami Fukui continues her original jazz journey with Nova Manhã, her fourth leader album from 2022 with eight tracks running at about 45 minutes. As with her previous releases Urban Clutter (2010), Amizm (2013), and New Journey (2016), this creative musician focuses her original music on the specific sound of her trio and her concept this time out. Seven of the eight tracks on this album are her own compositions. Her music is often colorful, perhaps with more calming hues on this release, and her unique blend of cool beats and pop melodies with a soulful smile runs through the music. ...

Humadope 2 from trumpeter Keisuke Nakamura features his quintet playing modern jazz originals with unsupressible energy. With a slightly different lineup as on his debut album Humadope (2014), the human/mad/dope sound is the same: fresh and boiling, jazzy and nonstop. No doubt Nakamura’s vision extends through the material, from the steampunk-ish cover to the song titles that describe a fantastical, searching aesthetic. And, of course, this influence carries through to the music, artfully composed with originality and serving as a beautiful post-bop platform for each musician’s improvisation. ...

The newish and attractive jazz bar Kohaku (opened in 2019) is hidden away on the sixth floor of a nondescript building near the center of bustling Shibuya, a district known for its youthful vibe and vibrant attractions. Figure 1: View from the room The name Kokahu (琥珀, amber), aka Jazz Bar Amber, may bring to mind an atmospheric warmth with gold and glowing colors. Or it may summon the image of hardened resin suspending an ancient organism, unchanged and captured in time. ...

Pianist Yuka Yanagihara’s second piano trio album is Inner Views from 2019, where she plays eight of her original songs in a piano trio format with bassist Yoshiki Yamada and drummer Ryo Noritake. In harmony with the album’s title and cover image, the music is on the whole introspective, focused on the near rather than the far. As Yanagihara puts it herself, these are eight songs that focus on the landscape of one’s mind. ...

“Hard bop jazz aimed towards the universe” might be a good way to introduce soprano saxophonist Hiroko Mase’s debut album First Contact from 2020. Together with her double-sax quintet, the album features ten of her original songs in a vibrant arrangement of energetic hard-swinging and mid-tempo songs brimming with atmospheric layers. The opening song “First Contact” together with #4 “Spinning Petals” (a live version is included in a video below) and #9 “Have Fun”!” prop up the album’s core jazz tentpoles with straight-ahead frameworks reminiscent of the sound of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and Cannonball Adderley’s bands: energetic rhythm sections that frame unleashed improvisation from double horn front-lines. ...

Jazz Club Pit Inn in Tokyo is one of the most well-known and respected jazz clubs in Tokyo, and for good reason. In business since 1965, this authentically genuine jazz spot is very popular with local music fans, and the popular spot also gets its share of tourists dropping in. Since its original opening, the club has relocated once and also opened other branches and related businesses such as rehearsal and recording spaces. Currently, Pit Inn’s main venue for hearing live music is the club which opened in 1992 in Shinjuku, Tokyo. ...