The five songs maintain that mystery and beauty with light, neatly arrayed piano trio frameworks filled out with painted backgrounds via orchestration of the trumpet, saxes, and guitar on the two septet/sextet tracks.

The title track “Rougequeue” opens with a crystal edge and rich use of the seven instruments for color and texture. The piano trio takes over on track #2 “Ringlight”, a dramatically swinging waltz that was a semifinalist in Japan’s 2014 International Songwriting Competition.

Chiba plays solo piano on track #3 “Orange Sky”, playing the piano with melodic tension and timing as if pulling the strings of a marionette to create life and feelings from wood and strings. Here as with other of Chiba’s compositions, the balanced mixture of pop, jazz, classical, and Japanese folk charm invokes captivating images.

Track #4 “Backstroke” is a six-member piece with characteristically modern, progressive jazz elements like a Herbie Hancock/Wayne Shorter outfit. A foreboding pedal note and vamp motif underpin slow-moving arrows of melody, leading to exciting sax and piano solos and a funky interlude with a guitar solo.

Chiba returns to solo piano for #5 “Water Flower” (ending with a solo piano piece is a pleasing tradition with this pianist’s albums). This song, in medium tempo in 5/4 time, approaches the jazz/classical piano boundary with minor tones, low notes, and emotional heft. With its slowly expressive melody over busier left-hand terrain, the album closes in a melancholic mood and evokes empathetic resonance on the wings of Chiba’s inspiration.

Audio and Video

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

• Live quartet version of “Backstroke” from 2014, track #4 on this album:

• Full playlist for this album

• Audio samples of #1 “Rougequeue” and #4 “Backstroke”

• Excerpt from track #2: “ringlight”

As suggested by the bright album photos, the music inspires verdant images from nature: gentle, green, flowing, water… and of course, swinging. Not bebop or a conventional big band swing feeling, but almost a classical, fantastic beauty and pulse.

With eleven songs over an hour, most songs run for five to six minutes, ample time to establish a mood and rhythmic patterns to develop over. Chiba’s music often sets up a repeated riff on which the harmonized horns and vocals soar in graceful crescents. On top of this, the music is detailed like corners adorned with decorations and interesting pathways running to and fro. Some moments almost bring to mind the British contemporary jazz trio Azimuth’s music, with cell-like patterns phasing in and out while wordless vocal improvisation floats around and joins with the music and rhythms.

As the music is consistently interesting and the songs are varied, it’s hard to pick excerpts from this packed album, but some current highlights include the breezily modern opening track “Asayake No Uta”, the stylish and delicate “Invisible Colors”, the inspiring reverie of “Kite”, and the beautifully crystalline “Water Drops”.

Most songs feature the full group, with songs for two piano trio and one solo piano piece. As with Chiba’s other albums, Beautiful Days concludes with the pianist alone, playing a moving solo piano feature with full notes and heartfelt passages.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album release:

• Excerpts from a 2019 live performance of the Fumie Chiba Trio:

• Excerpt from track #8: “Water Drops”