Free is an 11-track, 57-minute album full of Matsushita’s original music. The rhythms of jazz swing, Latin (including Spanish and Brazilian), smooth R&B, funk, and club jazz are the framework upon which Matsushita’s imaginative music is built and which the trio brings to life through their intuitively locked-in playing.

About the title Free: While brief and open to interpretation, the short and sweet album title may present some puzzles. First and easiest to clear up, no, this album is not free of charge. Though it was funny to see, at the trio’s live shows, a stack of these CDs for sale with the label Free prominently displayed on top, and wonder how to take the word printed right there on the cover — (wait, are these actually free for the taking? No, Matsushita explained after a laugh, they cost 3000 yen each!

Also, as another point of possible confusion, the type of music on this album is not free as in designating the genre of free jazz. These compositions are all well-structured original ideas from Matsushita, embodying her imaginative personality and dedication to writing catchy music. The songs are wonderfully arranged with a solid jazz backbone enhanced by cool fusion stylings, laid-back beats, Wayne Shorter-esque innovation, and Horace Silver-like Latin/swing conjunctions and switch-ups.

Listening to the album conveys the meaning of Free as used in the sense of free-minded, free-spirited, free-flowing, free-style. With dynamic accents, tempo shifts, and emotional contrasts, Matsushita’s compositional expressions are brought forth through the excellent playing of the trio and their personal solo statements.

From the naming and structure of the first track, La Tierra, one can’t help but draw the intended parallels between this and Chick Corea’s famous song La Fiesta, with both songs featuring tension-building minor-key rhythmic vamps leading to surging highs with colorful major-key fireworks. As this song and the rest of the album show, Matsushita’s compositions do draw from legendary influences (this is a large part of jazz, after all). Yet, these are foundations, not imitations, and this album is full of Michiyo Matsushita’s own conceptions in a variety of styles.

Continuing from La Tierra, track #2 “Kaze Soyogu” (風そよぐ, the wind rustles) shifts gears and lays back with a chill club jazz groove. #3 “Monk no Kyujitsu” (Monkの休日, Monk’s holiday) is a slow swing with a plucky off-kilter personality paying homage to the great Thelonious Monk. #4 “Hikari no Teikoku” (光の帝国, the empire of light) is regal, classy, and smooth. #5 “Slumber” is a long-time live favorite with an addictive sprinkling-notes theme, funky sections, and exciting changes.

#6 “Exoplanet” is a darker hue of swing/Latin bop jazz construction built for Matsushita’s solo piano improv. #7 “Harujion” (ハルジオン, spring fleabane, a white and yellow flower) is a quiet ballad, sweet and subtle. #8 “Unity of Mind”, like “Exoplanet”, has swing/Latin sections like Horace Silver, with intense hard bop rhythms and modern touches. #9 “Kiyoshi no Hiru” (きよしこの昼, silent day) is a medium-tempo 4/4 swing, light and nimble, with a straight-played chamber-like classical or march feel, with jazz standard constructions a la the Modern Jazz Quartet. The dynamic #10 “SR Brothers” (S and R for Show and Ryo) is an uptempo outing with adventurous time-meter shifts between pulse-racing swing and laid-back funk grooves (and, a very short free jazz section, there it is!). Lastly, track #11 “Ame no Koe” (雨の声, voice of the rain) is a meditative ballad where the ambient sounds of water linger in the beginning and end of the piece to bookend a folky Ghibli-hued warmth, leaving us free to imagine what comes after this happy farewell.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #5 “Slumber” live (2024):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #6 “Exoplanet” live (2022):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #10 “SR Brothers” live (2022):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #8 “Unity of Mind” live (2023):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio concert excerpts (2025):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #5 “Slumber” live (2021):

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio playing track #5 “Slumber” live excerpt (2023):

• Album release brief concert announcement:

• Michiyo Matsushita Trio album release concert (2024):

• Excerpt from track #1: “La Tierra”

Links

• Disk Union shop

• Amazon shop

• Google order form

It’s a simple and sweet affair, a short set of four-to-five-minute songs based around Sakai’s classy, low-key, and easy-to-love delivery. A five-piece band starts strong with track #1 “Stolen Moments”, a combo sound that reappears on the attention-getting track #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Starting with a rubato vocal/guitar intro, this take then races along and includes a dynamic three-player solo section in the middle, bracketed by Sakai singing in her attractively laid-back, confident yet understated style.

The full band sound is balanced with small duo and trio moments such as on the brisk and good-feeling #2 “You’re My Everything”, where guitarist Hiraoka’s walking bass and chords fingerstyle shines. Elegantly powerful in their quiet simplicity are the romantic ballads #3 “I’ve Got a Crush On You” and the closer #6 “That’s All”, reminding us that sometimes all you need is uncomplicated jazz for a good feeling and a nice atmosphere delivered by great musicians and soothing vocals… that’s all.

(On a tangent, I noticed that Stolen Moments includes some song titles with mild wordplay-adjacent connections for a relatively short album: The two middle song titles start with the same words I’ve Got with #3 “I’ve Got a Crush on You” and #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Additionally, a different pair of song titles contains the word Everything with #2 “You’re My Everything” and #4 “I’ve Got Just About Everything”. Pure chance, most likely, but I wondered if adding other songs with similar titles could create an interesting concept. Add the standards “I’ve Got the World on a String”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”, “I’ve Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)”, and “I Got Rhythm”. Then for Everything, consider “Everything Happens to Me”, “Everything I Have Is Yours”, “Everything I’ve Got (Belongs to You)”, “Everything I Love”, and Chick Corea’s “You’ve Everything” with its song title already incredibly similar to #2 “You’re My Everything”. Maybe a title for the resulting concept album such as Everything I’ve Got, or I’ve Got Everything, would be the perfect wrapping. But I digress…)

Audio and Video

• Live performance of “You’re My Everything”, track #2 on this album:

• Live performance of “I’ve Got a Crush on You”, track #3 on this album:

• Live performance of “That’s All”, track #6 on this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Stolen Moments”