Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes and commentary from Kazumi Ikenaga and Yoko Kobayashi.)

1.Waltz for Mars (Y. Kobayashi)

At our first rehearsal, Yoko Kobayashi said “These are communications with Martians.” I didn’t understand that at first, but after trying several times, I thought “Hmm, maybe this is that Martian feeling?” I headed into the recording with that in mind.

According to the composer, Martians and Earthlings (both children, apparently) are able to communicate well, and it’s pretty funny (laughs). For more details, certainly ask the author, please!

2.Kazekaoru (風薫る, Refreshing fragrant breeze in early summer) (Y. Kobayashi)

The two of use play roles where Yoko is a balmy summer breeze and I start as a gentle breeze that turns into a gust of wind like a bullet train speeding away at the end.

This soundscape revives distant memories. Once, on my way home from school, it was still a bit chilly and I started to hurry back on the road home, when a gust of wind seemed to respond and brush past my cheek.

3.Playground (Y. Kobayashi)

In the back room before our third live performance, Yoko gave me a freshly-written sheet music score and said “This is a song that I wrote with you in mind.” She even entrusted me to title the song. I felt the pressure, and I was thinking too hard on the first take of the recording, so I ended up going around in circles.

For the second take, I casually hit the drums with my bare hands, and I was just able to play as I returned to an innocent childlike state, thinking of nothing in particular.

4.Mrs.Hummingbird (Y. Kobayashi)

After Yoko’s comeback performance, a melody got stuck in my head during daily life. I thought, “Oh, what song is that, again?” I turned over some sheet music at home, and I noticed that it was that song. It’s exactly as if it were an old standard from long ago with a grand melody that evokes images of continents and oceans.

5.Konomedoki no (“Shimogaredoki no” no Urakyoku) (木の芽時の [“霜枯れ時の”の裏曲], Early spring [The opposite song of “Dry winter season”]) (Y. Kobayashi)

The trees are green, and the insects that have been living underground start to become active and make rustling sounds as spring approaches. The activities of living creatures begin in earnest. This song captures the light of their lives in the natural world as they support one another.

6.plastic moon (K. Ikenaga)

This is the title track of Plastic Moon, a 2010 album recorded in Denmark with the Magnus Hjorth Trio. We kept fine-tuning the song on an old beat up piano in the corner of a cafe in Copenhagen a few days before the recording, and it was included as the album closer. Every time I can play with these wonderful partners, my soul is enriched, I take further steps forward, and I continue to develop. This is the third album to record this song. Yoko’s lively sensitivity shines through.

7.Wind Song (K. Ikenaga)

Originally, this was an improvised part from an original song. There’s a thrilling sense of excitement for what’s going to happen, and a feeling of spring. There’s also a light, pop-style effect that adds further coloring to the album.

8.Danny Boy (Ireland folk song)

Once during my childhood, we were moving house during the chilly season. After we finished moving, we lit a bonfire in the vacant lot out front. My innocent child’s mind was absorbed in listening to the adults talking about the work combined with the sounds of the fire and of the music. The sounds of crackling…crackling…pop! from that time remain with me.

Once the conversations had ended, it was almost as if a lamp’s fire had been gently blown out… After the adults were gone and the fire had died, a certain loneliness lingered.

Here, the drums express the bonfire, and the piano represents the adults’ conversation.

9.Bonne yeah rit…..。 (Y. Kobayashi)

According to the composer, this does not have a sense of melancholy, but the feeling of looking out absentmindedly from a room’s window and watching the hustle and bustle going on outside (perhaps a big city, or somewhere next to a station in the suburbs?). It is just absently spending time listening to the city noise, such as the sounds of cars and motorcycles, and the voices of children coming home.

I have a memory from childhood when I would wait up late for my mother who worked night shifts. I kept myself entertained alone, feeling a little anxious and lonely while sitting at a window and watching the spotlight of a driving school across the way.

At a moment during the recording, I had the illusion that I had gone back in time to that memory, or maybe I was just daydreaming…

(Commentary: Kazumi Ikenaga)

Introduction

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those who have gotten this CD, Nearly Dusk / The Third Tribe (TTT).

On this album, I’ve been able to approach very closely a place that only this particular unit, Kazumi Ikenaga and myself, could imagine. This has became a very precious recording for me. At the same time, this is an album that offers a glimpse into some future evolution.

If I remember correctly, the first time I heard Ikenaga’s music was at Shinjuku Pit Inn before they moved, about 30 years ago. The cymbals were set very high, his long hair was pinned up on top of his head, he was filled with the energy of youth, and was having so much fun while playing very beautiful sounds. The image is still etched in my mind. (Note: Of course, I was also young at the time, and my bangs were precisely cut.)

At that moment, I selfishly thought to myself that I wanted to perform with this Ikenaga-san sometime in the future.

Since then, we’ve performed together many times during those long years, but it’s taken 30 years for this unit to officially begin in its concrete form.

I returned to playing live performances in July 2018, and it was something that took a lot of courage. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the music of drummer Kazumi Ikenaga supported me. Without him and his music, it may have been the case that I remained removed from music, shut away in my shell. I am also so grateful that he proposed the idea that we perform as a duo of drums and piano.

Fortunately, The Third Tribe (TTT) got started. I am convinced that the fact that were are a bass-less unit, and that the birth of this unit was 30 years in the making, are outcomes that were inevitable.

Yet, I think that this unit is just one small part of something, like a pillar. I feel that there is something profound about how this unit may expand, both in terms of composition and musicality.

Reflecting on it now, I think that the several years that I was separated from music were indispensable for me. If that had not been the case, I certainly would not have been able to reach the “point of departure” that led to me where I am now.

Last but not least, I would sincerely like to thank the engineer, Akihiko Goto, for his work with the recording and everything else, and Kei Sunayama for the jacket design.

Yoko Kobayashi

Yoko Kobayashi has been pursuing her own music since a time when there were far fewer people performing original jazz than there are now.

At first, her soft spoken style makes it hard to see the strength that is at her core as a pianist and her firmly established personal vision.

Her work depicts the poetic scenes of daily life, with wit and humor, and sometimes even fantastic illusions, in songs overflowing with charm that draw many people in.

It is this clear image that allows the performers to freely immerse themselves entirely in the performance.

There was a period a long time ago when we performed as a trio, and we shared a special connection every time.

Since then, there were many years that we spent where we each had many separate experiences. Now, this is where we meet again.

This time, it’s smallest configuration of a duo format where when one person rests, the other person performs solo. The canvas of open space allows for the fun of drawing a picture on a new piece of paper each time.

We play off each other’s sounds freely from our own positions. It’s like we’re constructing a building and decorating it together. Or, at other times, as if we’re back in childhood, running around the playground and making noise.

After being so absorbed in playing, the sun starts to set… This vision returned many times… It’s exactly Nearly Dusk!

Now, it’s our new unique culture not seen before, the start of The Third Tribe.

We hope that you will join us to watch how this duo evolves, and where we go from here.

Kazumi Ikenaga

Obi Notes

Here begins the history of a new musical tribe!!!
A prayer to the infinite universe, a completely new duo format and their shocking debut!!

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for Nearly Dusk:

• “Waltz for Mars” (track #1, alternate take):

• “Playground” (track #3, alternate take):

• The Third Tribe “Improvisation”:

• Live performance of “Waltz for Mars” (track 1)/“Full Full Company”:

• Excerpt from track #4: “Mrs.Hummingbird”

This album captures a directly connected musical conversation between drummer Kazumi Ikenaga and pianist Taihei Asakawa. A duo made up of drums and piano is not a very common format in jazz, but it is a format that really shows how, like with the circular yin-yang symbol, the two musicians fit perfectly together and fill out the space as if thinking, moving, and playing as one.

(As an aside, this duo format also provides a nice complementary subject to follow the previously introduced Yuki Ito bass solo album, as the three instruments complete the customary jazz trio format of piano, bass, and drums!)

Indeed, this drums and piano two-person format does allow for a great degree of listening and reacting by the pair as each player listens intently to the other. This makes the music seem like an extremely tuned-in conversation that naturally expands and flows, centered around each composition like both favorite and improvised topics to speak about.

On NordNote, these topics include seven evocative originals (six by Asakawa, one by Ikenaga) and three simply beautiful covers. Through it all, the overarching theme of nord (north) colors the canvas and directs the flow.

Ikenaga, like drummers Paul Motian and Jon Christensen, has an approach that expands the drumset much beyond straightforward time-keeping and common jazz patterns, turning the use of sticks, brushes, percussion instruments, and the whole set with artful silence and pauses like the negative space between words or in art. This all works excellently for creating substantial textures and upfront ambience through his melodic playing.

With pianist Asakawa, Ikenaga has a complementary and equal partner, one who fills out the songs’ natural melodic and harmonic parts like great lyrical players Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. (To that point, Asakawa’s recent live solo recording Waltz For Debby summons the spirit of those famous Village Vanguard Bill Evans Trio live albums, and this album’s #9 “In Love In Vain” has the addictive swing feel of the Keith Jarrett Trio version of that song, quite a high bar to match.)

Much like melodic improvisation, the two musicians simultaneously decide how to keep time, play rubato, open up, add shading, pause, or build — a meeting of minds in concentration and creation. The typical roles even seem to be switched at times, when Asakawa’s piano keeps time steady and the Ikenaga’s drums, cymbals, and percussion sounds color in the spaces with softness and delicacy.

This amazing music does speak for itself, and words just scratch the surface of the art here. Suffice it to say it’s captivating music, patient and radiant, ethereal and tender, and a joy to listen to these two musicians create together. The following translated liner notes provide additional context and thoughts from the two musicians.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Taihei Asakawa’s and Kazumi Ikenaga’s original Japanese liner notes.)

I play the piano. I am always trying to create distance from myself. In the space between myself and my alter ego, I gaze upon melancholy and death.

Over there, the much-loved and respected Kazumi Ikenaga is playing the drums. His sound is full of miraculous colors and light.

At first glance, we may seem to contrast with one another. Still, we share a transparent lyricism based on a bedrock that is not just a direction or location, but a spiritual dimension that is north.

Reverence for that which is invisible and sacred. Looking without bias towards all that is creation. The harmonious primal nature of the forests and universe.

North quietens people. A silence that speaks to us from beyond. And we realize. Ultimately we want to become that sound itself.

Taihei Asakawa

There is a photo here.

It’s a picture I took with my iPhone from right beside the drum set after a performance on October 5, 2013. At the time, I was often performing in a bass-less trio (formed of alto, piano, and drums) with a leading Japanese also sax player, Ken Ota. I can still recall some of the scenes from those trio performances vividly through my eyes and ears. Three people created a world of sound that was fresh and absolutely beautiful. It was almost as if we received sacred reverberations from the universe.

The pianist at the time was Taihei Asakawa. And this was our first meeting.

There is something in his piano playing that is not found in others, something so strong that it can instantly be recognized as his own. Raised as the eldest son at the music club “Gin-Paris Sapporo”, he was familiar with chanson from his early years, which undoubtedly had something to do with his upbringing. I instinctively felt that there was something there opposite to me. I didn’t know why but I just had a hunch. If I may say so without fear of being misunderstood, on a surface level it was, basically, “not a good match”.

It could be said that two completely different beings exist somewhere in order to create something. That contrast emerges with a unique three-dimensionality. Since then, that feeling has grown stronger with every shared performance.

In 2014 I formed the quartet The Poetry of Impressionism (tenor sax Ryosuke Hashizume, bass Yasutaka Yorozu, piano Asakawa) and we performed together through 2017. Our duo formation started in parallel from 2016, so this album release has already been four years in the making since conception. Several live recordings were also made, but for various reasons these have not resulted in album releases.

In this case, through the cooperation of engineer Akihiko Goto, we completed this album release on his label Time Machine Record in April 2020. The recording method of using a minimal miking technique (basically only two microphones), along with other releases from his label, has begun to attract attention as a unique presence in recent years. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Akihito Goto for his invaluable contributions.

NordNode is an expression of the shared understanding between Ikenaga and Asakawa, with their connections to the north, to Hokkaido and Northern Europe, and the music that envelops the pastoral spirit and ways of thinking of those regions.

Paired with the rapid increase in productivity and convenience arising from the spread of the internet, it seems that acts of close observation, the time to appreciate art, and even dignity towards people are being neglected. It’s a world where speedy, even instant stimulation is all that is demanded. As an antithesis to a world that tends to overlook spirituality, we the performers want to present a musical outlook that places importance on spiritual-oriented truth.

Thank you for picking up this album. For this occasion, the recording was made using the latest Kaneda DC recording system developed by Akihito Kaneda, engineer Goto’s mentor. I hope you enjoy the recorded sound (different from multi-track recording methods) that maximizes live sound reproduction with perfect sound quality.

Kazumi Ikenaga

*[1. Into the sound] *Composer: Taihei Asakawa

Within oneself, weaving sounds towards the outside of creation. Allow time to flow as it is. The journey begins from here. (Asakawa)

[2. Lady of silences] Composer: Taihei Asakawa

A song inspired by “The silent sister veiled in white and blue”, a passage from T.S. Eliot’s poem Ash Wednesday, which can be said to depict the landscape of purgatory. A white and blue that colors the silence.

As the words of prayer are further purified, they transcend sound and language to become silence. (Asakawa)

[3. Non] Composer: Taihei Asakawa

I composed a melody from memories of my dearly departed cat Non. Non and I were always together. We often listened to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Copenhagen Dreams together.

The other day, I tentatively opened up Hyakken Uchida’s /Nora Ya /for the first time in a long time, and after reading just two lines, I sunk into depression. It seems that the loss of a pet is a wound that never heals. I’m at a loss for what to do. (Asakawa)

[4. Line] Composer: Taihei Asakawa

Two lines play in space as the tonic and the embellishment constantly switch places. Each independently converses with the other. There is only this moment in time. While recording, the pair’s expressions resembled children in a sandbox. (Asakawa)

[5. Sænk kun dit hoved du blomst] Composer: Carl Nielsen

A song by Danish composer Carl Nielsen with lyrics by Johannes Jørgensen. This work was created in 1902. The title means “Oh flower, lay down your head”. It’s a song of the evening, and looking forward to the coming of a peaceful night.

Nielson grew up in a poor agricultural area rich with nature. In a forest, he noticed that pieces of firewood of different lengths would make different notes when struck, and from there he taught himself to make music. The simple beauty and strength contained in Nielson’s music are rooted in those elemental qualities that are unique to the north. (Asakawa)

[6. Cirkus] Composer: Taihei Asakawa

A song composed imagining the progression in the far north of a circus troupe made up of Nordic animals of the future. A Scandinavian electronica style 19-beat dance in acoustic form. I admire Ikenaga’s energetic solo development, free and lively without straying from the song’s essence. (Asakawa)

[7. May wind] Composer: Kazumi Ikenaga

I often get sick when May comes around, so although it’s exciting when spring passes to summer, perhaps my body can’t keep up with the changes, and the balance of mind and body crumbles.

As I hurried off to work reluctantly, saying “See you later” to my mother who had forgotten herself, a gentle breeze blew by and caressed my cheek. I felt as if my mother from back then was calling to me. (Ikenaga)

[8. Fragility] Composer: Taihei Asakawa

Rather than actual facts, memories are filled with the longings and aspirations of each moment. Humans are fragile beings. Because we cannot arrive there, we must entrust them with expression. (Asakawa)

[9. In love in vain] Composer: Jerome Kern

In between recording sessions, we performed a beautiful posthumous standard by Jerome Kern. Despite the sigh-like lyrics, we decided to set the tempo at a slightly thrilling pace. (Asakawa)

[10. Beautiful dreamer] Composer: Foster

A posthumous piece by the American composer Foster. He completed it a few days before his death, and the manuscript was later discovered at his home.

During the Civil War years, Foster lost his income, his wife passed away, and he became addicted to alcohol. Perhaps he was trying to sublimate his fading life into a beautiful melody, as if to escape reality. (Asakawa)

Recording system used: Original system developed, designed, and manufactured by Akihiko Kaneda

1. Kaneda-style balanced DC current transmission microphone (SCHOEPS MK2) x 2

DPA 4006-TL x 2

2. Kaneda-style balanced DC current transmission recording unit
3. Audio interface RME Fireface UC

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• A live version of “Amazing Grace”:

• Excerpt from track #5: “Saenk kun dit hoved du blomst”

Links

• NordNote

These three musicians have maintained close musical contact with occasional performances together since then, so this album is not only a long-awaited recording reunion but also a heartfelt response to various bittersweet events described in Nishiyama’s liner notes.

In that manner, Nishiyama strives to get to the heart of the matter with each song on this album. The music is different from previous albums in that wants to distill the music to its simplest yet strongest essence, to create straightforward themes using regular, established musical patterns.

This is a slightly different direction intentionally taken by the pianist, who in previous projects and groups has naturally gravitated toward composing complex arrangements full of challenging meters, time signature shifts, and multiple musical sections that span pages.

Similarly, she’s used to taking up difficult musical challenges like composing tuneful melodic themes using all 12 chords in songs like her “T.C.T. (Twelve Chord Tune)” and others, experiments inspired by Bill Evans’ famous “T.T.T (Twelve Tone Tune)” and other tone-row puzzles.

In addition, she’s gained more cross-genre acclaim recently through her jazz/metal fusion project N.H.O.R.H.M. with jazz piano trio versions of classic heavy metal songs. The four albums and live shows from that group also contained finely crafted arrangements and well-rehearsed performances. It’s no surprise that her considered thoughts and intelligence shine not only in her musical writing but also in her many textual essays and liner notes.

In a slight departure, Calling finds Nishiyama resisting her tendency towards complexity and musical puzzles. Here, the composer challenged herself to focus on creating the best melodies over relatively simple or established musical forms in jazz. She describes them as the types of songs that can be played from the sheet music without overly preparing for special bridges, endings, sections, arrangements, or other unique characteristics on the written musical page.

So, how does the music on Calling sound? It’s easy to initially call this music sad (a word often associated with some of Nishiyama’s music), but the opening track #1 “Indication” sets this somber tone right from the start. It’s not just the minor sound, but also the tension of a protracted melody draped over melancholic, slow-moving chords.

From there, the rest of the album cascades through terrain including tender and emotional (#2 “Calling”), spirited waltz swing (#3 “Reminiscence”), slow-moving translucence (#4 “Lingering in the Flow”), freely ambient and classical (#5 “Etude”), romantic and slightly metal 7/4 meter (#6 “Loudvik”), patient and restful (#7 “Drowsy Spring”), and the well-established Nishiyama style of exciting European-inspired modern jazz (#8 “Folds of Paints”).

Naturally, it’s impossible to capture the beauty of music in so few words, but these incomplete descriptions may give a simple outline of the contours, shades, and atmospheres found in this album.

While the graceful yet powerful sound of Nishiyama’s piano frames and improvisation fills most of the songs on the album, features for bass and drum spotlights also surface here and there. As three musicians who know each other very well, the music naturally includes the intuitive group dynamics that morph from traditional piano-bass-drum roles to balanced simultaneous improvisation, seamlessly, exquisitely, and back again.

One of Nishiyama’s goals for Calling was to create music that is easily absorbed, memorable, and evocative. This album accomplishes that immediately. Listeners can feel the stopping and starting of thoughts and memories evoked by the hesitant piano improvisation… Instant melodies rising from and dissolving into mist… Subtle but strong, distinct, clear change, rise, and descent from one chord to another.

Moreover, Calling perhaps also subtly hints of directions to come, themes and ideas that are further explored on her third release since then, 2023’s Dot. Incidentally, Hitomi Nishiyama just this week held an exciting live concert with her Dot sextet recording members as an album-release event in Tokyo (more on this impactful Dot in a future article). She also announced that a companion album to Dot is upcoming and set for a fall 2024 release with the title Echo, another record to definitely look forward to.

Liner Notes

(While there are no printed liner notes in the CD release, the following text is a translation of Hitomi Nishiyama’s “The Making of ‘Calling’”at Hitomi Nishiyama 西山瞳『Calling』制作の経緯など from October 5, 2021.)

This is how the album Calling /came to be./ Please read this in lieu of liner notes.

In previous interviews, I’ve talked about how the timing of several things led up to this recording.

The first event was on July 19, 2020. This was a high-quality 4K live broadcast from Studio DeDe Recording Studio in Ikebukuro.

From April 2020 until mid-June, there was a series of continuous non-working days [due to coronavirus pandemic measures]. I had been live streaming from home, and DeDe was planning a “Tokyo Basement Sessions” series with the concept of offering high-quality broadcasts directly from the recording studio. It came about that I would participate with the same trio that I had recorded Music in You (2011) at Studio DeDe.

It was a completely new experience to live stream from a recording studio was a completely new experience, and it felt awkward at first, but we gradually adjusted during the two-hour performance. Afterward, we were all saying things like “I want to keep playing a little bit more” and “Let’s do this again”. From then on, the thought “Once more at Studio Dede, with this trio…” remained in the back of my mind, and I was looking for the opportunity.

Then, two months later in September, the live space Creole in Kobe that had been so important to me closed down.

Creole’s closing wasn’t due to the pandemic, but at the same time, many places were closing down before there was even a chance to say goodbye. A sense of loneliness and of not having a place to go home to anymore grew increasingly stronger.

What’s agonizing about this was not the fact of being robbed of a place to play or that work opportunities would decrease, but rather that something like an emotional base or core had gone away. I imagine it must be like the feeling of one’s family home disappearing.

Under these conditions, I thought “It’s now or never”, and from that point on I carried my musical staff paper notebook with me and wrote a lot of new songs.

Then in November, the proprietor of Creole passed away.

Reflecting on the period from Creole’s opening in 2003 until now, and thinking about how the proprietor was a great admirer of Keith Jarrett’s songs, I realized that I hadn’t worked on Jarrett’s music enough. So I thought it would be nice to write a song like “Country” and “My Song”, and I began to write the album title song “Calling”.

Naturally, since I hadn’t devoted myself properly to Keith up until then, I couldn’t write such a song. When I finished writing, it turned out to be a different song than I had first thought it would be. But in the end, I figured, you only can produce what you have in you. I was satisfied with the result itself and, determined to record it then, I scheduled a recording date. That’s how it happened.

We recorded twelve songs and included eight on the album.

The four extra songs, Calling Outtake, are available for download-only purchase exclusively via iTunes and OTOTOY.

In the fall of 2020, I wrote six songs in my walking-around staff notebook: “Indication”, “Calling”, “Folds Of Paints”, “Etude”, “Blue Badis”, and “T.T.T.T.T.”. None of the songs have complicated harmonic progressions or compositional tricks like those around the time of Shift and Music in You.

I think that this is partly a result of my response to coming up with extremely complicated arrangements for NHORHM, as well as the worldwide conditions last year. I just didn’t feel like writing anything complicated. I had a great desire to write powerful songs in fixed formats with something strong running through them.

Fixed formats, or common song forms, refer to structural frameworks primarily used in traditional American music, such as the 32-bar form, AABA form, ABAC form, and three-part construction [verse, chorus, bridge].

And in order to fit that traditional simple form, the melody has to be well-thought out or it will be a failure. There are already many famous songs that share the same form as others, so it’s a huge challenge to boldly attempt to create something in that way. I repeatedly refined them carefully.

Using the word “strong” may seem peculiar, but I think of it like this: When a non-musician thinks “That song… what kind of song was that?” and, upon remembering the song can easily sing a section of the song, that’s a strong song (at least, that’s what I think at the moment).

Another dimension to the strength of jazz is “to create courses or routes which allow the performers to demonstrate their abilities and open up ensemble possibilities”, which is yet another subject. I feel that this is a really interesting part of jazz composition, to what extent to give players a sense of freedom while creating a course that allows these talented racers to run.

As a personal belief, composing in the mode of “Apart from the main form, add a simple solo section consisting of two completely different chords, etc” is something I don’t want to do outside of a fixed band with regular members, and I don’t do it consciously.

Notwithstanding the fact that this may be altering some “rules of jazz”, I want to exist as a jazz musician even if not perfect, so I also want to maintain the format of the jazz rule “Variations on a theme once played”. That is to say, having played the theme but then being asked to begin a solo as a separate story, it would be difficult to know what would be good to play.

The Calling trio has released two previous CDs, but rather than a band sound, we aim for a session with an air of tension, so we hardly ever rehearse before a live show. In fact, with the exceptions of “Standing There”, “Unfolding Universe”, and “Kinora”, we don’t do anything that isn’t in the jazz form of “Variations on a theme once played”.

On the other hand, with the band Parallax, I incessantly create developments one after another and apart from the main theme and it’s always music that requires rehearsals. Inevitably, the sheet music also grows longer.

Both trios are piano trios, and I think that listeners can also sense the apparent differences, the biggest distinction might actually just be this point. Is it music for rehearsal, or music without rehearsal?

This time with Calling, more so than with the same members’ previous releases Sympathy and Music in You, there are relatively simple songs that can all be played impromptu.

Although it couldn’t be included in the main release, I think I was able to achieve that goal with the writing of “Blue Badis” in that respect. I think it’s the best result I’ve achieved among the songs that I have written recently.

“Folds of Paints” is one that I carefully refined, and I was able to sketch the story as I imagined it. It’s something that I can only attribute, somewhat proudly, to the emotional backbone derived from my mania for Pieranunzi.

“Calling” has a motif that I saw through and continued to call out to the very end, and I was able to create a song that’s close to my real voice.

Although the CD was released in September, we haven’t been able to schedule a single album release live show after that. Given the current situation, I am hesitant to schedule a big live event. Originally a big part of me thought “Let’s leave this as a record of what I wrote during this unique period”, and as this is a current-day record of that, perhaps it doesn’t need a CD release live show like with usual CD releases.

I’ve been asked “When is the CD release live show”, here and there and through messages, and I apologize that I haven’t been able to reply properly to everyone, but I would like to think about scheduling that when the conditions are safe and it feels right.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for “Folds of Paints”, track #8 on this album:

• Promotional video for this album with excerpts from #5 “Etude”, #3 “Reminiscence, and #2 “Calling”:

• Hitomi Nishiyama Trio - STUDIO Dede Presents “Tokyo Basement Sessions” Vol.5 Teaser:

• Excerpt from track #6: “Loudvik”

The Hitomi Nishiyama Trio creates music that is exquisite and graceful, delicate and refined, where the music flows and builds and whirls in a stylish modern jazz style, with piano chords and melody lines moving over the deep bass and crystalline cymbals like wind passing through and around leaves on boughs, swaying and producing tranquil sounds of nature.

This musical style is represented as well by the album art, “Knotted Threads” by artist Akiko Ikeuchi, where, in the music and the artwork, intricate lines intersect and diverge like delicate brush strokes of light, deep and reverent (see also to the trio’s Music In You album for a similar art/music connection).

Like a large lake shifting slowly and powerfully, reacting to deeply-stirring movements, Nishiyama’s original songs on this album are strong, emotional and heavy: The opening “Sympathy” is an darkly sweet waltz; “Scarlet” builds dramatically in a thrilling 7-beat meter; “At The Gate” is a driving, imaginative exploration decorated with elaborate runs and flourishes; “Cross Section of Gray Cities” tells a mechanistic, futuristic tale ; and the album closer “Remains To Be Seen” evokes a purity of message like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, delicate and beautiful and about to bravely fly away.

The presence of the fellow lyrical jazz pianist Bill Evans is also felt throughout Sympathy. While Evans’ “Laurie” is performed as a sentimental homage to the influential pianist, Nishiyama’s original song “Tack” calls to mind Evans’ lyrical approach to jazz waltz playing, while her “T.C.T.T. (Twelve Chord Tune Two)” offers a reply to Bill Evans’s song “T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune)”, a musical puzzle adeptly answered here.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Sympathy”

Links

• Thread sculpture (used as cover art) by Akiko Ikeuchi

Like the gracefully knotted thread art on the album cover, Nishiyama’s music also seems to be composed of delicate lines, intricately flowing and interweaving to create a weightless construction of deep substance.

The music designs atmospheres of melancholy, brilliance, and intoxicating nostalgia. The songs are all of a piece, reflecting a careful sensitivity and attention paid to composition, with improvisation that reflects the musician’s inner voice on display as the group shifts and supports together.

All of the compositions on Music in You are by Nishiyama, several with novel titles like “Kinora”, “Syneya”, “Unfolding Universe”, “Exhibiting the ‘NOW’”, and “T.C.T. Twelve Chord Tune” — a descendant of and tribute to Bill Evans’s “T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune)”, a clever musical experiment based on tone rows.

Alongside these are songs with more direct titles, such as “Standing There”, “Pictures”, “Pathos”, and “Just By Thinking Of You”. With the considered imagery of both compositional and title choices on Music in You, the musical and literary personality of the accomplished pianist can be further appreciated and understood. Yet words can only go so far. The best way to get the music in you is to listen.

Audio and Video

• Video with samples from this album:

• Excerpt from track #4: “Unfolding Universe”

Links

• Thread sculpture (used as cover art) by Akiko Ikeuchi

• International Songwriters Competition 2009

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liners notes written by Kazumi Ikenaga.)

1. Unspoken Language / Jakob Buchanan

This song was actually performed and recorded at the end of our session, but when I listened back to the take, the idea came to me that it should be the album opener. This was my first time playing this piece, but my body reacted so naturally to it that I didn’t even look at the score. We were all just having a conversation through the music at the time.

2. Twosome / Christian Vuust

This song was written by Christian Vuust for his longtime friend and collaborator Jakob Buchanan. It’s a relaxing and melodious piece in which the scenery of Scandinavia emerges and disappears. While recording, I forgot that we were in a studio, and fell into the illusion of the scenery of the sky being changed by the wind.

3. JSB / Christian Vuust

This is named after the initials of Johann Sebastian Bach, of of Christian Vuust’s greatest musical inspirations. It’s a three-part construction of the theme in rubato, a tenor solo in straight eighths, and a mallet solo, with the final theme in rubato played again as an ending. It makes me imagine the magnificent nature of Scandinavia, the people who enjoy life there, and the history that is made as time passes.

4. Niwatazumi / Kazumi Ikenaga

The word niwatazumi (潦) is not very common in modern times but used to appear in haiku and ancient language forms. This is a waltz that was inspired by watching young children play in puddles of water left behind by the summer rain. It was a great take of the members’ performances.

5. Plastic Moon / Kazumi Ikenaga

Whether with my own group or elsewhere, I still often play the title song from Magnus Hjorth Trio’s 2010 CD Jogen—Plastic Moon. Since then, the song has gone through revisions, and as the instrument arrangement changes, and as the world changes, this song brings new discoveries each time.

6. Nanna / Jakob Buchanan

Nanna is the name of this song’s composer Jakob Buchanan’s beloved wife. It’s a song with a steady groove, rare in this album full of many rubato songs. As the rhythm section is enjoying the groove, the horns’ melody is full of humor and wit, yet the landscape of sound changes even to the extent of feeling melancholy and grief.

7. Returning / Kazumi Ikenaga

When I was eleven years old, due to family circumstances, I moved to a town where I spent seven impressionable years. It was there that I met important friends and started to study music on my own. Decades later, when I returned from studying abroad and visited the town after a long time, everything seemed to have gotten smaller. The air and the water were delicious in that town, the nature is abundant, and the changing of the seasons can really be felt. I felt that my sensibilities were cultivated there.

8. Høj Himmel / Christian Vuust

In English, it means “High Sky”. In Denmark, it’s said to represent the appearance of a vast sky on the flat land. Christian, who has loved ornithology since childhood, wrote this song one day while birdwatching cranes, hawks, and egrets on a lake in his home country.

9. By The Blue Bridge To Morgan Country / Jakob Buchanan

This is composed of a simple melodic refrain that evokes a philosophical feeling almost as if listening to a Zen dialogue. This song felt appropriate for an ending, where time passes gently as waves ebb and flow on the coastline. The whole song is played with mallets.

Audio and Video

• The title track “Niwatazumi”:

• Excerpt from track #2: “トゥーサム (Twosome)”