The 45-minute album contains all original compositions from the pianist, eight new songs in her consistently original but true-to-jazz-roots style that incorporates different rhythms, influences, and cultures. The trio members — Harumi Nomoto on acoustic piano, Ryoji Orihara on fretless electric bass, and Sohnozuke Imaizumi on drums — are the same as 2014’s Virgo, and they gel perfectly as a fun, intuitive, and locked-in trio playing a variety of Nomoto’s compositions and great picks from the standard jazz canon.

The album starts with track #1 “Double Touch” with an immediate shift into Nomoto’s style of creative, straight-ahead piano trio jazz. Unexpected accents written into the melody pique curiosity with a feeling of near-imbalance that is rooted in the solid ground of unshakable groove. This sets the mood for a special loose-but-tight feeling in the music, one that displays the skill and excellence the musicians bring together through puzzle-piece coordination and trust.

#2 “Seiran” could be heard as a dichotomy of J-Jazz, where the intro and outro sections serve up a smooth club jazz/hip hop posture surrounding an inner core of medium-tempo good ol’ jazz blues.

#3 “Sudoku” is a song built on a musical challenge as Nomoto arranges twelve notes and twelve chords of the chromatic scale into a hopscotch framework of music. (This puzzle formulation is reminiscent in jazz of Bill Evans’ “T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune)” and, in Japanese jazz, Hitomi Nishiyama’s “T.C.T. (Twelve Chord Tune)”.) With Orihara and Imaizumi covering the foundation, Nomoto’s adlibs through most of the song with a wildly unconstrained yet carefully controlled solo. As with many of the moments on this album, the trio walks a tightrope of concentration and relaxation, where only their familiarity, intuition, and skills keep them aloft in the air as they improvise spontaneously.

Track #4 “Cucumber Man” is a happy groove jam in the direction of Herbie Hancock hard bop and New Orleans-style funk, filled with the brightness of three jazz musicians settling in for some fun.

#5 “Guitar no Yo Ni” is another smooth offering that brings laid-back comfort with a rock/hip-hop beat to the fore, similar to the intro and outro of #2 “Seiran”. Some sounds from Nomoto’s earlier releases and also in this style, particularly Belinda (2007) with its emotionally stirring loops of chords-to-chord wrinkles on certain progressions with deep groove drum beats.

Track #6 is the title track “Anitya”, a forward-learning modern jazz song that grabs the attention with its sharp writing and performance.

The last two tracks, #7 “Warm Winter” and #8 “Jacques”, work nicely together as a pair of songs to wrap things up, guiding the listener out gently and lovingly. As the album starts to close, the sounds are slower and more tranquil, as if luring us into a deeper state of peace, an extended goodbye. “Warm Winter” sets a lovely and sweet mood as Nomoto plays expressively throughout the song. The closing track “Jacques” dives even further for a darker feeling of intensity with peace, an immense tidal blue expanse that surrounds and supports everything.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Harumi Nomoto’s original Japanese liner notes.)

1.Double Touch

This is a blues-form song with accents set in certain places to shift the timing. The title comes from a soccer term related to footwork.

2.Seiran (青藍, indigo blue)

This song is an 8-bar blues progression. I love the color of indigo blue that is called seiran in Japanese.

3.Sudoku

I created a song that uses 12 notes for the melody and 12 chords. There was a time when I was hooked on sudoku (“number place”). The way the performance starts like a puzzle and gradually turns chaotic resembles the way that I feel when I am solving a sudoku.

4.Cucumber Man

There’s an anecdote about a person who was told “In a past life, you were a cucumber”. For some reason, I remembered this at a time when I wrote a cheerful-sounding tune. It’s a play on “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock.

6.Guitar no Yo Ni (ギターのように)

I originally started writing this thinking about the soft strumming of a guitar. As I continued to work it, it became something completely different… but that’s alright, too.

6.Anitya

I wrote this song thinking of a Spanish 3-beat song that I happened to hear. Once again, the result turned out to be something completely different. Anitya is a Sankrit word that expresses the meaning of impermanence. Although it’s is unrelated to the song itself, I come to think more about these things as I grow older, so I chose this title.

7.Warm Winter

If I recall correctly, around the time the coronavirus had started spreading, there was a warm winter without any snowfall. This is a melody that came to me at the time, when I was feeling uneasy for some reason or another.

8.Jacques

I created this song while imagining waves coming in and going out. I borrowed the name from the legendary diver Jacques Mayol, who loved the sea around Tateyama in his later years.

Audio and Video

• “Cucumber Man” (track #4) — live at Bon Courage, Tokyo, in February 2025:

• “Guitar no Yo Ni” (track #5) — live at Pit Inn, Tokyo, in June 2024:

• “Warm Winter” (track #7) — live at Pit Inn, Tokyo:

• Harumi Nomoto Trio: Anitya promotional video with short excerpt from “Aniyta” (track #6):

• Harumi Nomoto Trio: Anitya promotional video with short excerpt from “Cucumber Man” (track #4)

• Full album (YouTube)

• Full album (Spotify)

• Full album (Apple)

• Excerpt from track #1: “Double touch”

One of those personal heroes is saxophonist Kosuke Mine, who joins the group as a special guest and adds his engagingly vibrant tenor sax sound on five of the nine tracks. Those include two of the album’s peaks for excitement (the edge-of-your-seat #2 “Flip a Coin” and the funkily thrillseeking #5 “Maverick”) as well as Mine’s introspective ballad #7 “After the Checkout” where the two saxes converse over melancholy piano chords to set a dramatic scene.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Miyuki Moriya’s original Japanese liner notes.)

As always, thank you for picking up and listening to this album.

Although Beyond the Sea is my fourth album as a leader, it feels like a continuation of my first album Cat’s Cradle which I released in 2010. For this new recording, there are songs that I’ve been working on for years, new songs written for this album, and two songs by musicians whom I respect greatly. Since this is fully packed with nine songs (at over an hour!) I hope that you stick with me through to the end.

About the musicians, two have been with me for close to twenty years and played on my first album: pianist Mamoru Ishida and drummer Sohnosuke Imaizumi. Bassist Junichi Sato has been with this band since April 2021. Incidentally, being able to meet him was a trigger to making this album.

This time we were also joined by a special guest, the beloved saxophone player Kosuke Mine, who I have endless respect for both musically and as a human being.

When I was still a youngster in my early twenties (yes, there was such a time… haha) and a total beginner in jazz, I was looked after by the owner of a local jazz spot called Swing House in my hometown of Takamatsu. One day, a regular customer told me “Kosuke Mine is coming here, and you definitely should hear him!” So, when he came to perform as a touring member with guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo, that’s when I first met and heard Mine-san. (Mine-san probably doesn’t remember that time, but ever since then, he has been incredibly kind and wonderful to me!) I bought his /Major to Minor /album at the time, and it’s continuously been one of my favorites. To be honest, I only knew about bebop then, so it was a bit of a challenge at first. But every now and then, I would pull out the record, listen to it, and think “Wow, this is really, really cool!” And, the more I continued to play jazz, the more captivated I became by his sound and his playing. A few years later in Tokyo, I was able to meet Mine-san again, and I even stood on the same stage as him. The fact that the day finally came when I could play with him on my own leader album is truly like a dream come true. I feel very blessed.

I’ll briefly introduce the songs.

1. Cicada’s Blues (Miyuki Moriya)

This is a blues inspired by the life of a cicada. They say that some cicadas remain in the earth for seven years, but apparently, the type that lives in Japan only stays underground for four to five years at most. The fact that they only live for one week after emerging is based on observations under breeding conditions, and it seems that their actual lives and behavior are not well understood. It may be that their happiest times are sleeping deep in the earth while dreaming of the whole wide world.

2. Flip a Coin (Miyuki Moriya)

It means a coin toss. This song was written for this album, and the key is the slightly tricky bass line in the intro. I imagined the anticipation, the nervousness, and the thrill that can come at times when one is readying for victory or defeat, or taking a step into a new world while trying to suppress feelings of excitement.

3. 父母ヶ浜 (Miyuki Moriya)

There is a beach in my hometown in the Kagawa Prefecture where the sunsets are very beautiful. My grandmother’s house is nearby, so when I was young, I would go to swim in the sea there in the summer. It’s a wide, shallow beach, so at low tide, a large pool of water is formed and beautifully reflects the sky like a mirror. Recently, it’s become a very popular tourist spot, dubbed Japan’s Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats).

4. Melancholy Marie (Miyuki Moriya)

This is a song I wrote to celebrate the birthday of Mariko-san, the cute wife of Miyazaki-san who runs the jazz bar Cochi in Koiwa. It’s a fun and relaxing place that I visit almost every month. The ever-kind Mariko-san always worries about her husband, as he loves alcohol a lot and sometimes drinks too much. They are an incredibly wonderful couple.

5. Maverick (Miyuki Moriya)

It means a lone wolf, a rebel. The barmaster of the jazz bar Salt Peanuts in Ekoda has been taking care of our band for many years. This tough character has seen the Tom Cruise movie Top Gun: Maverick at the movie theater more than 50 times! We choose the title of this song in appreciation for him.

6. Beyond the Sea (Miyuki Moriya)

I love the blue seas of Japan’s southern islands. I wrote this song during the self-isolation period in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, I was hoping to break free as soon as possible and escape to a southern island. In fact, I wrote this with inspiration taken from the song “The Color of Peace” by the wonderful pianist Hajime Yoshizawa.

7. After the Checkout (Kosuke Mine)

This is a beautiful ballad written by Kosuke Mine. It so goes that he wrote this song in the studio right after checking out of an establishment for mountain seclusion, where he would sometimes go alone in order to practice and compose. No matter how many times I play this song, I’m deeply moved. It’s one of my personal favorites.

8. PAPA Julian (Miyuki Moriya)

This is a swing number inspired by “Cannonball”, aka saxophone player Julian Edwin Adderley. I wrote this about twenty years ago and since then many people have performed it. It’s a piece that I’m personally pleased with, and it has become a familiar song at this band’s live performances.

9. After Dark (Hidefumi Toki)

This is a ballad by my esteemed instructor Hidefumi Toki. The person I have become today, who is able to continue playing jazz from then to now, is the result of my meeting Toki-san. I still treasure the things he taught me and the courage he gave me. It was an honor to be one of his students. With gratitude.

This album has a completely different atmosphere compared to my earlier two albums. My album from two releases ago, Mukashi Mukashi, paid respect to the free jazz of 1970s Japan. My previous release Uta Oto was inspired by nature, the Earth, and distant foreign lands. I hope that listeners who have been with me since earlier albums will enjoy this change. At the same time, I hope that new audiences who may be hearing me for the first time through this album will also be inspired to explore the different sides of Miyuki Moriya that I’ve created so far.

At the beginning of these liner notes, I mentioned that this album feels like a continuation of my first album. While our situations and environments have changed over the years, I’m extremely happy to be able to put out this work together. These great, hardworking musicians who I’ve played with up to now and into the future still remind me of the fresh and energetic feelings that I had when I first started playing.

守谷美由貴 Miyuki Moriya

Obi Notes

The sky, the breeze, the blue. Sax player Miyuki Moriya welcomes veteran tenor player Kosuke Mine as a special guest on her summer album that is making a splash.

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Beyond the Sea”, track #6 on this album:

• Short excerpt of the Miyuki Moriya Quartet playing “Cat’s Cradle” from her first album, live in 2011:

• Miyuki Moriya and Kosuke Mine playing “You Don’t Know What Love Is” live at Tokyo’s Hot House in 2013:

• Audio for “Chichibugahama”, track #3 on this album

• Audio for “Maverick”, track #5 on this album

• Excerpt from track #2: “Flip a Coin”

The overall sound and improvisation favor texture-building over flash. Rather than an overload of bebop feats, free jazz, or abstract outside playing, here attention is paid to structure and texture - the musical vibe, rhythm, and riffs. As in the forest for the trees, the focus seems to be on immersing the listening in the comfortably cool and mostly mid-tempo music. For example, “Denim” is a welcoming 3/4-meter with a strong hook and a warm sound. Other tracks such as “Refrain” and “Signal” roam over adventurous territory with a modern odd-beat structure, snazzy angular and compelling shapes with a drum-focused solo ending while the piano and bass vamp.

Favoring the slicker style popular in some modern jazz releases over the classic, “vintage feeling” of swing-based beats, the group excels at simple yet cohesively interlocked musical patterns. Drummer Sohnosuke Imaizumi and bassist Koji Yasuda in particular bring a lot to the music, crafting the strong and balanced bottom end and rhythms that frame Fukui’s compositions so well. In particular, Imaizumi’s special light touch and syncopated zest elevate the music even further, enhancing the music with unobtrusive yet cleverly-timed punctuations.

Liner Notes

(Translated from the original Japanese liner notes written by Ami Fukui.)

ORGANIC SHOWER

This song started when my younger brother asked me to create original music for a project as he was going to video school. To that, I added a chorus and it became this song. As the image related to the feeling of a flower extending and growing, the title was “Organic Growth”, but inside I felt as if waves were sparkling, so with that image I choose the title “Organic Shower”.

DENIM

This song was inspired by a type of incense with the brand name “Denim”. I made the song by consciously using the three elements of humming, a 3-beat meter, and gospel style.

REFRAIN

Similar to Morse code, I like when chords change as the same note continues to be played, and perhaps there are many of those songs in my originals. This is one of those songs. This time, it was a song I composed while addicted to the 7-beat meter, with the key being the last 32 measures in particular.

ZAI JIAN

It’s a song I wrote inspired by some influences after returning from last year’s trip to Shanghai… or so I thought, but somehow this was a song I did before then (laughs). I like this word for “let’s meet again” and made it the title.

MOJITO

I realized in this composition I was able to make a song in club style. I made a kick during a drum solo because I wanted to make something that would make So-chan (Sohnosuke Imaizumi) on drums groan, I made a feature with a drum solo in the middle. I wonder if that is the selling point (laughs).

RAIN

This was made in the image of the title. I like how the bass starts playing the motif and the piano continues it, and from there the shape gradually changes. From light rain to heavy rain… Then light rain again… I choose an image similar to how the scenery changes. Koji’s bass solo fits this image perfectly.

SIGNAL

When I went to New York, the ringing of sirens from morning through nighttime left quite an impression. This impression is reflected in the eighth measure of the theme. It sounded like this to me (haha)! This is a song where I started with the supposition that it would be nice to hear the guitar tone as a backdrop. Together with the 5-beat meter, I like the special feeling of floating.

VELOCITY OF THE LIGHT

I wrote this song thinking that it would be great if it would change tempos freely, becoming faster and slower throughout the song.

NOVELLA

As a challenge, I thought to myself why don’t I try to make something majestic and classical-like, different from my previous compositions? I made this while thinking of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Italy, where I would like to visit someday.

URBAN CLUTTER

This is a song I wrote about 4 years ago which I rearranged for this recording. I really wanted to include this song as it could be said to be my starting point. But of course, my tastes have changed between then and now, so I tried to use the original version and see if I somehow could incorporate my current feelings. In that sense, with the passage of time, I think that who I am now somehow came out most. I hope you can feel the darkness if only a little.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for the song “Urban Clutter”, the last song on this album:

• Excerpt from track #4: “再見-ZAI JIAN (Rewatch-ZAI JIAN)”

Also distinguishing the sound is the edgy, metallic sound of the alto sax and the funky, crystalline drumming, with stylish planes of piano and guitar and gliding over the deeply full bass lines. Drummer Sohnosuke draws attention with a concentrated hip-hop energy driving the odd-meter songs, and, along with steady bass lines from Ikejiri, keeps the listener anchored even through unusual rhythms beyond standard swing patterns (see Sohnosuke’s Rin (2018) for similar sounds.)

Sharply-crafted jazz with a modern spark particularly identifies Moriya’s music, and with “Tuck Box”, “Matching Dice”, and the title track “Cat’s Cradle”, the sax player strives for originality by building riffs on challenging, odd-meters over which blistering improvisation can be laid down. These songs, as well as her sunny “Message” and soulful “Existence”, hit the bullseye at setting a mood, and are still favorites of Moriya’s fans today and often performed at live concerts to welcoming audiences. Balancing the energy are a few ballads as well, including a piano/sax duo on the emotive ballad “Just A Gigolo”, a melancholy goodbye wrapping up the album.

Audio and Video

• Excerpt from track #1: “Tuck Box”

Virgo follows the pianist’s previous albums Another Ordinary Day (2002) and Belinda (2007) and completes a trio of records that progressively show an expansion of creative vision and songwriting tact. Through arrangements honed at Japanese jazz clubs through prior years, the music was released to eager fans with this album of seven originals plus an arrangement of Thelonious Monk’s “Green Chimneys”, which gets a unique slow-and-low groove treatment here.

Aside from straight-ahead jazz, leader Harumi Nomoto and bandmates fretless electric bassist Ryoji Orihara and multi-genre jazz drummer Sohnosuke Imaizumi have perfected a jazzy, funky groove for modern jazz, apparent throughout on tracks such as “Green Chimneys”, the effervescently modern and angular “Hirari”, and the entrancingly catchy “Avocado” which kicks into a flashy high-gear for an impressive trio showpiece.

Exotic musical elements also surface on Virgo, as African music inspires the strong crowd-pleaser “Do Re Mi”, a joyfully bouncy tune with an upbeat bass and drum groove with fun breaks. Similarly, an adventurous mood arises on “Azurq”, mellow and modal, and evoking foreign vibrations in the vein of Yusef Lateef’s Eastern explorations.

Plenty of peaceful space is also offered and balances the energy well, with the tender ballad “Aru Hito No Koto” and two versions of the song “Rain”, an ode to the beauty of wet weather and contemplative moods.

Audio and Video

• Album promo video #1:

• Album promo video #2:

• Album promo video #3:

• Album promo video #4:

• Excerpt from track #6: “Do re mi”

The first track on Grown-up Christmas Gift is the main show, a thirteen-minute “Christmas Medley” featuring Ishikawa’s resonant voice gracing seven classic holiday tunes and popular songs. Stops on the musical tour include “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let it Snow!”, “Silent Night”, “Jingle Bells”, “Winter Wonderland”, “The Christmas Song”, and “Happy Xmas”. As the singer moves from song to song, the mood, rhythm, and instrumentation change as well, where jazz piano, organ, guitar, and choirs result in a charming holiday medley.

Track two features Ishikawa with “Soft Voice”, a four-part vocal group singing “Sutekina Holiday” in Japanese, and the final track presents her intimate duo of vocal and guitar performing the Billboard pop hit “Grown-up Christmas List”.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for Sanae Ishikawa’s “Everything”:

• Excerpt from track #1: “クリスマス・メドレー (Christmas Medley)”

A gorgeously-recorded drum and cymbal sound makes Imaizumi a pleasure to listen to as he plays with his well-suited bandmates. His rhythmic sense is masterful, lightly delivered with ease as he improvises fills, accents beats, and plays with time. His drumming is particularly in sync with bassist Kazuhiro Sunaga from the Japanese jazz group Quasimode, where Imaizumi previously drummed for five years and released five Blue Note releases.

Session leader Imaizumi contributes all of the original songs and arrangements on the album (“Nag Champa”, “You So Kind”, “1993 Misawa Air Base”, and others). In addition to jazz, the drummer’s style and influences are on display with the track “Hip Hop Medley”, where “Carry On Tradition” (Nas) and “Each and Every Thursday” (Funky DL) are performed as a stylish jazz tribute, one of the album’s groovier high points. Two choice jazz standards are also performed in straight-ahead jazz form, Benny Golson’s “Fair Weather” and George Gershwin’s “Soon”.

In addition, six tracks by Imaizumi and sampler artist Blahmuzik are placed between other tracks and serve as interesting sound buffers showcasing the drummer’s beat and textural capabilities.

The overall album delivers an exciting variety of moods centered around a modern jazz piano trio with a fun vibe, well-produced, skillfully played, and decorated with stimulating experimentation.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for this album:

• Drums-and-sampler excerpts from Sohnosuke Imaizumi and Blahmuzik:

• Excerpt from track #1: “Nag Champa”