Those musical statements make up ten tracks that run for over an hour’s worth of material. Matsuo’s quartet plays on eight of the tracks with performances that flow atmospherically between robust displays of fun virtuosity and more laid-back pieces. Two tracks feature Matsuo alone on overdubbed guitar, simulating a duo that offers a view into his lyrical writing and close-up playing style.

It’s also interesting to note that the category keywords tagged to the online digital version of this album include acoustic, country, and folk along with jazz, and although Matsuo’s influence and personal style may lean towards these different genres here and there, the overriding jazz spirit, attitude, and improvisational showcases are the main features of this album, from start to finish.

Sticker Notes

Wildness and intelligence intertwine, stirring up the fiery sparks of tumultuous phrases. This is guitarist Yudo Matsuo’s first album in six years, recorded with his perfect lineup for a quartet. Beautiful fingers race elegantly over his original songs that are brimming with ideas.

Audio and Video

• Time Thieves (track #5) - live version:

• Asalato (track #7) - live version:

• Recording studio montage:

• Digital album streaming/download (Bandcamp)

• Excerpt from track #2: “Blue violet”

Her storied journey includes forays in the bands of renowned Brazilian bass player Luizão Maia (partnered with Jobim, Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina, and others—coincidentally, Nobie’s even been described as “the Japanese Elis Regina”), Soil & Pimp Sessions pianist Josei’s Alma+ band, famous Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, influential Beninese guitarist Lionel Loueke, and the popular Japanese jazz/samba/fusion of Shinichi Kato’s B-Hot Creations.

For years, she has been primarily known for her beautiful singing voice among her wealth of talents, appearing on stage as a vocalist with various bands and collaborations. She has been more prominent as a leader in her own right since making her name with her 2011 debut album Primary. Since this release, she has continued to be active with live shows and recorded music, and her latest album Owari to Hajimari, a primarily guitar/vocal duo album, was just released last year.

Primary knits together Nobie’s rich musical background, influences, and musical loves through eleven selections made up of six of her originals and five cover songs. Being described as “stylish jazz and bossa nova” would be easy but definitely too simple, as Nobie’s palette, controlled articulation, and intentions are much more colorful and vivid. In fact, only three of the songs on this album delve into obvious Latin territory at the very start, middle, and end of the album.

When not jamming it up and getting down with Brazilian guitars and rhythms, the sound of the music varies as the musicians combine in different forms. With acoustic and electric blends, the propulsive group sound is based on acoustic piano and guitars, electric keyboards and guitars, drums and percussion, and subtle effects. Through it all, her clear voice, deceptively light and airy, infuses the music with gentle elegance and soaring grace with pinpoint accuracy, leading the band and the music effortlessly through its moods.

Here is a brief map of the album’s tracks with forgivably brief descriptions: Brazilian guitars and voices with infectious riffs and rhythms (#1 “Shinkansen”, #5 “Arigatou”, #11 “Wind From Minas”), layered ethereal trips floating on fusion jazz (#4, “Loop”, #7 “Black Narcissus”, #10 “Minami e”), smooth jazz (#6 “Letter”, #9 “Oceano”), unforgettable pop (#2 “Blackbird”, #3 “Human Nature”), and a heart-heavy love song (#8 “Tarde”).

The cover songs include Lennon/McCartney’s ever-popular “Blackbird”, Michael Jackson’s hit “Human Nature”, and Joe Henderson’s mesmerizing “Black Narcissus”. Perhaps most importantly, her influences for /Primary /also include Toninho Horta (specifically mentioned on the obi sleeve), the Brazilian guitarist/singer who, along with friend and musical partner Milton Nascimento, is a giant in the Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) genre. Horta joins Nobie on the first and last tracks (Horta’s “Shinkansen” and Nobie’s “Wind From Minas”), lending his expert Brazilian guitar and voice to two of the album highlights.

No stranger to juggling genres, Nobie’s live shows are dynamic and unpredictable with the mixing of familiar favorites with unexpected gifts, from Brazilian and pop to the deep jazz catalog, from Sting and Jimi Hendrix to McCoy Tyner, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, and Airto Moreira.

In live settings when playing rearranged covers or her originals, her skills include playing with complex rhythms and time signatures with an innately accurate musical sense. On Primary, beats and time signatures are relatively straightforward, pinned down with easily absorbed grooves. Still, even when reigned in, the sense of strong time control from Nobie and her band is penetrating.

Also, in addition to her singing of song lyrics, her voice often transcends words into free-form scatting, nimble improvisations, and rhythmic vocalizations with pops, clicks, trills, chirps, hoots, growls, and whispers.

These ear-catching sounds are further extended through her impressive skills with simultaneous percussion playing of caxixi (shaker), hand drums, and similar physical instruments, and even remarkably simulating percussion sounds and rhythms with her voice between phrases and lyrics. When bringing the mood down, however, her gentle voice exudes exquisite calmness, guiding listeners into a meditative peace and stillness similar to “Loop” on this album.

At live shows, Nobie switches between singing in Portuguese, Japanese, English, or voice-as-an-instrument wordless vocalizations, as suits the material or her spontaneous mood.

Similarly, on Primary, Nobie sings in Japanese for five tracks, English for three (fitting the finely-rearranged Beatles and Michael Jackson songs and Nobie’s storytelling love song “Letter”), Portuguese on one, and with instrumental voice on “Black Narcissus” (appropriately sax-like), “Shinkansen” (with train station names appearing near the end, naturally), and “Wind From Minas”, closing the album just like it begins, with irresistible rhythms and addictively lovable singing.

Audio and Video

• Nobie performing #1 “Shinkansen” live with Toninho Horta:

• Nobie performing #1 “Shinkansen” live with Shikou Ito and Kohzo Komori:

• Nobie performing #5 “Arigatou” live with Shikou Ito and Kohzo Komori:

• Excerpt from track #4: “Loop”

Guiding the music is the full voice of the vocalist Ueda, singing in Portuguese and booming with honey richness and strength, swirling around and through the music with a gravitational pull on the dynamics. The music sizzles with kinetic energy and sheer pleasure, and Ueda’s confidence and control fits the bill grandly.

As with her debut album Agora, the singer is supported by her familiar guitar and piano mates Shinji Hashimoto and Junichiro Ohkuchi. For Dois, she adds bassist Ryoji Orihara and drummer Nobuyuki Komatsu to the rhythm section for extra vigor and irresistible samba beats, experts at creating the rhythmic currents that soothe, pulse, and energize. Guest Jo Da Babylonia also joins on cavaquinho on three tracks, adding a classical guitar/ukelele sound which enhances the Brazilian sound with keen, invigorating vibrations.

Audio and Video

• Yuka Ueda performing live in 2015:

• Yuka Ueda performing live in 2018:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Meu Escudo”

Mine is a living legend who started young, releasing his first album in 1970 to immediate acclaim. He cut his jazz teeth with many well-known musicians, including Joe Henderson, Mal Waldron, Sadao Watanabe, Terumasa Hino… the list is long. For a period, he was a long-time member of the fusion jazz group Native Son, after which he returned to leading his own straight-ahead groups, touring, recording, and lighting up the jazz scene in Japan and abroad.

This album marks Mine’s return to releasing albums under his own name after participating in jazz in New York and Tokyo and his years with Native Sun. The tracks were performed with fellow Tokyo musicians at the popular Body And Soul club in 1993. The album is also noted as a transition from a fusion jazz focus to a more straight-ahead style, being likened to moving from a Wayne Shorter “Weather Report” approach to Sonny Rollins’s rhythmic bop style. In any case, Mine’s playing is top-notch and expressively original, with fluid horn flights that are stunning and exciting, soulful and jaunty.

The album’s six tracks are all originals played live, united with the raw energy of the audience. Mine’s originals are well-built frameworks, addictive grooves with enough space for the soloists to stretch and fly.

The solid swing jazz on “Major to Minor” kicks off with deep color and edge, continuing with the weighty bluesiness of “Morning After”, pulsing adrenalin of “Last Shot”, the deeply resonant ballad “Sasuke”, and the ballad-to-midtempo-walking chimera of deep jazz attitude. “Changa”, an original tune offered by bassist Tsutomu Okada, is another highlight of high-energy expression, a slow-building tidal wave of churning sound and risk-taking solos like high-wire acts over rumbling bass roots.

Throughout, the group hangs together tightly, flexible enough to decorate each other’s textures with responses and well-timed splashes of color, the rhythmic cohesion warranting as much attention as the expert improvisations.

This album received the 1993 Japan Jazz Disc Award.

Audio and Video

• Kohsuke Mine performing “Blue Plum” live:

• Kohsuke Mine performing “Seymour” live:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Major to Minor”

The striking singer assembles some of her favorite partners for this effort, including guitarist Shinji Hashimoto, pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi, and bassist Daisuke Toi. This jazz family of musicians also joins Yuka Ueda (sometimes written as Yu~ka, Yũka, or Yuuka Ueda) frequently at her beloved neighborhood jazz bar Gate One in Tokyo.

On Agora, Ueda leads with a straightforward piano-guitar-voice format, the strong, full voice of the singer confidently flowing over the evocative chords for an atmosphere brimming with romance, nostalgia, and zest.

Yuka Ueda’s repertoire accumulated over years of performing both well-known and less familiar authentic Brazilian music, and this album contains just a tantalizing selection of those fan favorites, making for an eagerly-awaited release.

Lovers of Brazilian and Latin music will be delighted with songs such as “Reunao De Tristeza”, “Flor De Lis”, and “Pressentimento”, and casual listeners will recognize the familiar tunes “Triste” and “Dinji” which are often played as standards on jazz albums. In a creative twist, the song “Berimbau”, which often provokes rousing energy at Yuka Ueda’s live shows, gets special treatment here as the album’s prologo and epilogo bookends, performed in vocal solo with whispering tones and booming sincerity for quite a personal touch.

Audio and Video

• Video of Yuka Ueda singing “Pressentimento” live:

• Video of Yuka Ueda singing “Triste” live:

• Excerpt from track #9: “Pressentimento”

In addition to her compelling horn playing, Miyawaki’s contributions also include original songs and arrangements, all showing a creative style with modern themes calmly developing over sharp grooves with fascinating frameworks. The selected cover songs include a great modern jazz version of the Japanese folk song “Sakura”, the atmospheric latin tune “El Choclo”, “Summer Night” in uptempo swing, and a tender duo with guest pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi (joining on five songs) on the heartful ballad “I’m Glad There Is You”.

Audio and Video

• Yuko Miyawaki performing “Sakura” live in 2011:

• Excerpt from track #1: “SAKURA”

The pianist Ohkuchi contributes three original songs (the opener is a highlight) with other tunes by Andrew Hill, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and others – undoubtedly influences on Ohkuchi’s piano style. The result is a skilled piano trio having a great time making high-caliber jazz.

Audio and Video

• Live video of the Junichiro Ohkuchi trio in 2021:

• Live video from 2008:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Sopa de Ajo”