The charm of the NYC backdrop is not used simply for glamorous postcard photos, however: Pianist Kitajima and bassist Motoi Kanamori, both based in Japan, joined up with longtime New York resident Fukushi Tainaka on drums for the recording of this album in his adopted hometown. It seems that the energy and legacy of the big city inspired the players as they recorded the music for this album, raising them up as if standing on the shoulders of the past jazz giants that they love.

Kitajima shows off her style influences through tributes to the legendary jazz piano players who are some of her favorites. Through her attention and dedication, she focused here on Bobby Timmons (track #1 “Soul Snappy”), Sonny Clark’s (#4 “Sippin’ at Bells”), Bud Powell (#6 “Tempus Fugit”), and Error Garner (#8 “Erroll’s Dream”). These admirable goals are realized by the trio’s locked-in skills, effort, and dynamic energy as they run through the moods of soulful bop, jazz blues, smooth bossa nova jazz (#3 “Estate”), Afro-Cuban jazz (#9 “Manteca”) and swing, swing, swing.

Along with the six jazz standards and covers, Kitajima also introduces four of her original compositions on her debut. Along with her refined, reverential playing style, her creative songwriting also honors the essence of true jazz in the tradition of good-feeling, hard-swinging jazz piano trios.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Kanoko Kitajima’s original Japanese liner notes.)

This album was completed with the cooperation of many people. I want to dedicate this album to all my family and friends who always look after me, the listeners and club owners who support me, and my late grandfather who taught me about the joy of music.

On this, my first album, I am fortunate to be joined by the superb drummer Fukushi Tainaka, who has been continuously playing at the forefront of jazz in New York City for forty years. I’m so pleased to have made this album, which was recorded in a historic New York studio with such excellent musicians and audio engineers. I hope that you will enjoy this record, created with a whole-body swing feel, for a long time to come.

1. Soul Snappy / Kanoko Kitajima

This is an original song that I wrote with inspiration drawn from a pianist I admire a lot, Bobby Timmons. I put my sense of his powerful and beautiful playing into this song.

2. Long Way to Go / Kanoko Kitajima

Jazz is deep, and I often feel a whole life can be devoted to pursuing it. Listening to so many songs and getting the chance to perform with my respected mentors has been an amazing experience for me. I wrote this song with the determination to examine and devote myself daily to continue to work hard over the long run.

3. Estate / Bruno Martino

This song, whose title means “summer” in Italian, is magnificent and melancholic. I focused on trying to make the melody sing beautifully without losing the song’s atmosphere. Tainaka’s deep mallet playing and Kanamori’s sexy bass lines stand out, making this song great for hot summer days.

4. Sippin’ at Bells / Miles Davis

This is another one of my favorite songs, also included in the album Cool Struttin’ [Sonny Clark, 1958]. The title refers to drinking slowly at a bar called Bells. Check out Tainaka’s drum solo, full of emotion.

5. Sometimes I Feel / Kanoko Kitajima

Often, when the day’s over and I’m thinking about whatever happened that day, I get lost in thought. This song came to me during one of those times. We recorded it as a piano trio for this album, but I was thinking about using horn instrumentation when I wrote it, and I’d like to record it as a quartet someday.

6. Tempus Fugit / Bud Powell

Bud Powell left us with many spectacular songs and performances. Among those is this song, one filled with his new approach to melody and speed, and one that was a challenge for me. It’s a difficult song to play through the melody with many coordination spots for the three of us as we run towards the ending. Tainaka’s wonderful brushwork is really enjoyable.

7. If You Could See Me Now / Tadd Dameron

The prolific songwriter Tadd Dameron wrote this song for Sarah Vaughan, a vocalist he performed with a lot at the time. When I first heard this song I was deeply moved by its beauty, and I have treasured playing it ever since.

8. Erroll’s Dream / Kanoko Kitajima

Erroll Garner, famous as the composer of “Misty”, is one whose piano playing makes me happier the more I hear it. His music fills my heart when I close my eyes and listen to his tremendous lyricism and colorful touch. I tried to include that dreamlike sentiment into this song.

9. Manteca / Dizzy Gillespie

This song is very memorable for me. In 2013, I attended Junko Onishi’s jazz workshop at the Saito Kinen Matsumoto Festival, and the assigned piece was this song. I still remember her saying “Use the whole piano like an orchestra, from top to bottom, and play with your entire body.” It became a dynamic performance together with Kanamori’s firm beat and Tainaka’s incredibly cool groove.

10. Serenade in Blue / Harry Warren

Harry Warren gave us more than 800 impressive compositions, including “The More I See You” and “There Will Never Be Another You”. I learned about this composition when I was living in Fukuoka and was a member of Junya Hidaka’s AMG (Advanced Music Gallery) big band, and we played this beautiful song. I remember it being very romantic at the time, as we played it in an outdoor setting where the neon lights of Nakasu joined the night sky. I brought the album to a close with this favorite and memorable piece, “Serenade in Blue”.

北島佳乃子 Kitajima Kanoko

Obi Notes

A brilliant debut record from a pianist with a naturally sophisticated talent! You’re moved to smile with every note from all the songs… this is real jazz!

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Soul Snappy”, track #1 on this album:

• Live performance of “Estate”, track #3 on this album:

• Live performance of “Daahoud” with the Fumika Asari Quartet:

• Live performance of “Caravan” with the Natsuko Matsuyama Quartet:

• Excerpt from track #2: “Long way to go”

From song to song, the combination of musicians and styles changes, shuffling between quartets, trios, and duos. Throughout, relaxed easiness and vintage swing arise from classy ensemble playing and spotlit guitar improvisation. As for the changing combos, a guitar quartet is featured on track #1 (guitar, piano, bass, drums), then a trio on #2 (guitar, bass, drums), a guitar & guitar duo, a quartet, a trio, a guitar & piano duo, a quartet (guitar, alto sax, trombone, bass), a sextet, and finally a guitar solo. This variation of players and combinations of instruments keeps things interesting while introducing Asari’s musical vision for her debut release.

The first two tracks on Introducin’ are instantly welcoming, with the nice bossa group sound on “Triste” followed by a bluesy jazz groove on Asari’s original “Summit”, a song with a classic vintage vibe recalling the feeling of Grant Green or Sonny Clark albums. Next, “Black Orpheus” pairs Asari with guitarist Sadanori Nakamure for the hypnotic sound of two guitars playing off of each other. (Asari is also featured on a 2022 release entitled /Generations Guitar Trio /with Nakamure and guitarist Mitsukuni Tanabe, expanding on this layered guitar sound with a full album).

Other highlights include a comfortably swinging jazz quartet on “Bluesette”, up-tempo excitement on “Daahood”, and even some pop easy-listening with two Carpenters songs played back-to-back near the end of the album. Asari ends with an especially sentimental guitar solo on “But Beautiful”, leaving a warm impression as a lasting introduction to her music.

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes written by Hiro Yamanaka.)

In the summer of 2015, I was in Ochanomizu covering the finals of the Gibson Jazz Guitar contest. While exchanging pleasantries with an acquaintance who was a jazz guitarist, she told me about a wonderful young woman, a guitarist who was appearing that day. That was the day I first heard the playing of Fumika Asari.

It was also the day that signaled to me the coming of a new generation, as I heard the traditional old-style playing (in a good way) of a guitarist still in her early 20s. After that, I had the opportunity to interview her several times for jazz magazines, and as I got to know her personally I could sense her unchanging honest characteristics, and perhaps a slightly stubborn side as well, if I may be so bold. I was happy as I sensed the progress of her guitar playing over time as if it were my own accomplishment. As she was polishing her skills accumulating many live performances with excellent musicians, it was not only this writer but many jazz guitar fans who were looking forward to her debut recording. And now that time has come.

Anyone listening to this work Introducin’ will certainly feel happy. You can understand how she loves jazz, and how she studied the playing styles of many legends. Rather than writing liner notes in the old style of a track-by-track explanation, it seems unnecessary because the listener’s heart and ears will judge while enjoying the music. So here I will write mainly about my honest feelings.

There are many jazz guitarists in Japan’s jazz scene now expressing themselves in different styles. In particular, young guitarists seem to prefer a traditional style. Of course, there are guitarists such as May Inoue who pursue new expressions and styles, which is an attractive part of the future of Japanese jazz guitar.

Fumika Asari’s jazz origins were most likely influenced by Mingus, an old jazz cafe in her hometown of Fukushima City where she heard the music of players like Grant Green and Jim Hall.

As those who know these two legends are aware, their musical sensibilities vary widely, yet she absorbed them simultaneously. For example, you can hear a strong Grant Green style in the straight melodic expression in “Triste” and “Bluesette”, but when it comes to ad-libbed improvisation, within the Grant Green style you can hear some Jim Hall coexisting in the construction of harmony and flow of her phrasing.

Emily Remler is another guitarist who influenced her. In addition to Remler’s hard-picking and powerful swing, perhaps the recording of “Daahoud” here is influenced by Remler’s recording of “Daahoud.” As for “Daahoud,” the name comes from a colleague of composer Clifford Brown, the trumpeter Talib Dawud. This must be an expression of respect characteristic of jazz players.

This album contains two original songs, both of which are excellent and fully express Asari’s sensitivity. Surely I’m not the only one who can also feel the good sensibility of Emily Remler here. And the seventh and eighth songs are arranged like a medley of two hit songs by a band she loves, the Carpenters. It’s a really smart, crowd-pleasing technique.

Picking highlights is difficult when all the tracks are so good, but the duo on “Black Orpheus” with Japanese jazz guitar god Sadanori Nakamure naturally deserves special mention. In recent years, Asari has been performing regularly in a guitar trio with Nakamure and Mitsukuni Tanabe, and knowing their minds so well they breathe life into the songs head-on. It’s quite admirable. Incidentally, both Asari and Nakamure were born in the Year of the Rooster, yet there is a sixty-year age difference!

How is Fumika Asari’s debut album? The guitar tone is incredibly beautiful! Plus, the importance of the melody and poetic sentiment is conveyed. And, the special attention paid to the various formations, and the support of the participating musicians really shines through. In the 1947 American film Road to Rio, Bing Crosby sings the song “But Beautiful” with lyrics comparing the aspects of love. I don’t think that this meaning here of the word “beautiful” is the same as the Japanese word “utsukushii” (beautiful). As this “beautiful” is expressed by the meaning of the lyrics as “subarashii” (wonderful), such is Fumika Asari’s solo guitar beautiful.

Jazz journalist Hiro Yamanaka 山中弘行

Audio and Video

• Fumika Asari playing track #4 “Bluesette” with ceramic art by Mika Noguchi:

• Fumika Asari Quartet playing “Daahood” live, track #5 on this album:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Triste”