田中徳崇 on Jazz of Japan | Brian McCrory https://www.jazzofjapan.com/tags/%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%AD%E5%BE%B3%E5%B4%87/ Recent content in 田中徳崇 on Jazz of Japan | Brian McCrory Hugo en-us Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Mayuko Katakura: The Duality of My Soul https://www.jazzofjapan.com/mayuko-katakura-duality-of-my-soul/ Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.jazzofjapan.com/mayuko-katakura-duality-of-my-soul/ <p>I’m always excited to get my hands and ears on a new release from pianist Mayuko Katakura. Her latest trio disc, recorded with bassist Takumi Awaya and drummer Noritaka Tanaka, is titled <em>The Duality of My Soul</em> and was released earlier this year. It hits the spot as a sharply modern jazz piano trio album.</p> <figure><a href="L1310872x-1200.jpeg"> <img loading="lazy" src="L1310872x-1200.jpeg"/> </a> </figure> <p>The album’s eight tracks consist of seven Katakura originals and one cover song to close the set, an instrumental version of singer Abbey Lincoln’s “Being Me.” Karakura’s music is pure trio propulsion, muscular, raw, and risk-taking. Other emotions and impressions generated while listening to this music include the words heavy yet facile, determined and pointed. Whatever the subjective descriptions imply, it’s completely enjoyable, straight-ahead J Jazz coolness.</p> I’m always excited to get my hands and ears on a new release from pianist Mayuko Katakura. Her latest trio disc, recorded with bassist Takumi Awaya and drummer Noritaka Tanaka, is titled The Duality of My Soul and was released earlier this year. It hits the spot as a sharply modern jazz piano trio album.

The album’s eight tracks consist of seven Katakura originals and one cover song to close the set, an instrumental version of singer Abbey Lincoln’s “Being Me.” Karakura’s music is pure trio propulsion, muscular, raw, and risk-taking. Other emotions and impressions generated while listening to this music include the words heavy yet facile, determined and pointed. Whatever the subjective descriptions imply, it’s completely enjoyable, straight-ahead J Jazz coolness.

Track #1, “A Dancer’s Melancholy” (also featured on Katakura’s releases Faith and The Echoes of Three) is fantastically rich. #2 “The Duality of My Soul” is adventurously complex. #3 “Merciful Eyes” is a beautiful soft ballad. #4 “Dusk” is a thrilling backward-facing rollercoaster ride in deep groove gear.

#5 “Pursuit” evokes the forward momentum of an edge-of-your-seat chase scene where the influence of McCoy Tyner rises close to the surface. #6 “The Circle of Color Emotions”, like #4, is another riveting musical-mind-expanding highlight. Similarly, #7 “Canvas”, picks up the reins of track #5 and continues laying out exhilarating speed riffs in the improvisations and rhythms.

Finally, the last track #8 “Being Me” is a sweet and slow ballad, played with a fully romantic sentiment. In this vulnerable setting, Lincoln’s original lyrics seem to come through Katakura’s wordless piano notes, singing a personal meditation on self-discovery and acceptance, and possibly referencing (somehow) the duality of this great pianist’s own musical soul.

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]]> Rabbitoo: The Torch https://www.jazzofjapan.com/rabbitoo-the-torch/ Sun, 22 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.jazzofjapan.com/rabbitoo-the-torch/ <p>Opening with a single-tone drone, electronic jazz music group Rabbitoo continues their retro-futuristic sound on their second album /The Torch /from 2016.</p> <figure><a href="L1230323x-1024.jpeg"> <img loading="lazy" src="L1230323x-1024.jpeg"/> </a> </figure> <p>Digital and analog sounds swirl and mix through Motohiko Ichino’s guitar, laden with textural effects and deploying modern music and rhythms alongside carefully tuned sound and static in an audiophile’s frame. This is vibe-setting music that wouldn’t be out of place in a fan playlist of lofi study beats or on the edges of a digital-future jazz collection.</p> Opening with a single-tone drone, electronic jazz music group Rabbitoo continues their retro-futuristic sound on their second album /The Torch /from 2016.

Digital and analog sounds swirl and mix through Motohiko Ichino’s guitar, laden with textural effects and deploying modern music and rhythms alongside carefully tuned sound and static in an audiophile’s frame. This is vibe-setting music that wouldn’t be out of place in a fan playlist of lofi study beats or on the edges of a digital-future jazz collection.

The Torch/’s nine songs explore territory that blends digital and analog sound, with effects and filters added to the saxophone and guitar as they play looping patterns over the webs of modulated synths, drums, and bass. Alongside the spacey orbits, as on Rabbitoo’s first album /National Anthem of Unknown Country, there are also comforting echoes of old-fashioned primal humanness inhabiting the frequencies as well.

Listening to this album creates these sorts of impressions: A visual prism broadcasting waves…Monochrome soundtrack music, comfortably robotic/human labwork…Layers of melodic interlace cascading down Escher staircases…Sinister underground synth beat, chewy notes, and floating sound waves…A drifting mix of clouds and snowflakes…Bubbling and frothing uptempo odd-meter club beat…Sliding westward roots to country…Circular spiraling groove a la Medeski Martin & Wood…Slow slices of sound intersecting and reflecting…

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]]> Rabbitoo: National Anthem of Unknown Country https://www.jazzofjapan.com/rabbitoo-national-anthem-of-unknown/ Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.jazzofjapan.com/rabbitoo-national-anthem-of-unknown/ <p>The textured sound of Rabbitoo makes a lasting first impression on their debut album <em>National Anthem of Unknown Country</em> from 2014, a fusion of jazz, rock, and electronica influences.</p> <figure><a href="L1220801-1024.jpg"> <img loading="lazy" src="L1220801-1024.jpg"/> </a> </figure> <p>The five-piece group led by guitarist and primary songwriter Motohiko Ichino produces otherworldly atmospheres with loops of sound and cascading sheets of melody set against precise rock and dance-inspired beats. The instruments riff and interlace, fitting together like puzzle pieces at times, an intense chorus at others, while swirling over underlying rhythmic grids for a dusky, spacey, trance-like aura.</p> The textured sound of Rabbitoo makes a lasting first impression on their debut album National Anthem of Unknown Country from 2014, a fusion of jazz, rock, and electronica influences.

The five-piece group led by guitarist and primary songwriter Motohiko Ichino produces otherworldly atmospheres with loops of sound and cascading sheets of melody set against precise rock and dance-inspired beats. The instruments riff and interlace, fitting together like puzzle pieces at times, an intense chorus at others, while swirling over underlying rhythmic grids for a dusky, spacey, trance-like aura.

Definitely not following the typical jazz formula, this beat-centered music with some live jazz improvisation incorporates electronic loops and samples in real-time along with their primary instruments – guitar, sax, keyboards, bass, and drums – modified with echoes, distortion, and other effects. Another clever addition, the Minimoog synthesizer’s characteristic sounds enrich the music greatly with a haunting, retro-futuristic feel, evoking popular songs and suspense movies from the past and strengthening the sensation of this dramatic, mood-pushing music.

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