It is known to all my great passion for the jazz music genre and in particular for Japanese jazz.I find in fact a particular dedication to the musical gesture and the research to return the intention of the original artist. Or, in the case of original compositions, the tension to highlight, always,  the feeling before the technical gesture.  

It is also well known that I have a predilection for certain solo instruments that I consider to be prince. Such as the grand piano, the violin and the trumpet. Together with double bass and guitar.

I find it poignant to hear Ryo Fukui’s pianism each time, with its expressive rigor. Or Tsuyoshi Yamamoto’s hypnotic repetition on the key.

Still, the soft legato between notes and the maintenance of the melodic line on the sound layer from Teru Sakamoto.

But in the more recent panorama of Japanese pianism, among other things so rich in female exponents, I find vibrant pianists such as Rei Akagi, Manabu Ohishi and Akira Ishii, and pulsating double bassists such as Daiki Yasukagawa.

The superb quality of Japanese labels

But, along with the jazz, I find the quality of Japanese recordings and prints truly remarkable.

Just think of craft recording labels such as Terashima, Alboré, Atelier Sawano, Trio, Bomba, Pony Canyon, and the one we’re talking about today, D-Musica, for the album Colors.

Without forgetting, to tell the truth, that several recordings of superb albums are made by Italian wizards of sound, such as my  special friend Stefano Amerio.

Obviously, nowadays the musical offer is very wide. Sometimes it happens to have confusion about what to choose for your purchases.But it is also true that sometimes it happens to come across albums that at first listen seem to be confused with others.

But that make you feel that, if you have the patience to listen more carefully, giving yourself a break from the unbridled dynamism of our days, they will give you something more than just a listen of great class.

Not fifty but a thousand shades of the soul

Colors is one of those cases.Where you are lucky enough to stumble upon what I call a true journey of the soul.The album features a trio of exceptional musicians, Akira Ishii on piano, Masahiko Osaka on drums and Daiki Yasukagawa on double bass.Three pure talents, but even before that,  Three authentically expressive performers capable of touching the listener’s soul.

But it is on Keith Jarrett’s track 5, Paint My Heart Red, that in my personal opinion reaches the pinnacle on this album.Here the trio disappears. It merges and becomes one musician.This is not a simple track. But a real dialogue of love between the piano and the double bass….it almost seems that the latter, through the pizzicato of the strings, whispers a declaration of love, accompanied in the background by the brushes of the drums that caress the skins

On the first track, Afro Blue, the piano dominates the scene with rigor. One almost has the feeling of time scanning, like a precision metronome.

While on the second track, it seems to see Ishii who, like a painter, casts the first stains on the canvas, and Yasukagawa’s double bass and Osaka’s drums guide the hand in making the color take shape and the images take on a more mythical vision.

The elegance almost of a slow dance underscores the track 3, Jours En France, by celebrated film score composer Francis Lai…

But it is on Keith Jarrett’s track 5, Paint My Heart Red, that in my personal opinion reaches the pinnacle on this album.Here the trio disappears. It merges and becomes one musician.This is not a simple track. But a real dialogue of love between the piano and the double bass….it almost seems that the latter, through the pizzicato of the strings, whispers a declaration of love, accompanied in the background by the brushes of the drums that caress the skins

Listen carefully to track 7, Retrato em Branco e Preto by Chico Buarque. Here we always find romanticism, but less intimate and more solemn. Ishii’s piano almost seems to turn the pages of our lives. One by one. The lyricism becomes almost an ode  jazz key. An elegy for the modern times

  Colors is not simply a beautiful record by an exceptional trio. It’s a journey. Not a hectic one in a supercar. Rather, riding a bicycle and taking care to choose secondary routes as well, so as not to miss a single color or nuance of this bizarre but magnificent adventure we call Life.Highly recommended not only to jazz lovers, but to all those who declare themselves in love with music.  

(Benny Cassarà)