KEIKO MATSUI PRODUCES NEW 'MOYO' HERSELF FOR NEW LABEL

Best-selling keyboardist Keiko Matsui steps out in a new direction with the upcoming album Moyo. The set is her first recording for the Shout!Factory label, her first that she produced entirely on her own, and the first to have been composed and partially recorded in South Africa. In fact, the title Moyo is Swahili for "heart and soul". Featured on the new set are trumpeter Hugh Masekela, saxophonists Paul Taylor and Gerald Albright, vocalist Waldemar Bastos, and bassist Richard Bona. The first single from the set is Black River featuring Taylor. Matsui says that she decided to go to South Africa to create the music for the album, and was enchanted by the experience. "I met legendary trombone player Jonas Gwangwa and he introduced me to the manager of a piano factory so I could use their pianos to compose," she writes in the notes for the album. "I commuted there every day ... I concentrated on composing new material, surrounded by many pianos. I will not forget their pianos and the smell of the ground there. It was a different but incredible experience." Many of the songs on Moyo were inspired by her time in South Africa. The new album will arrive on April 24th.