Ascendant
trumpeter and composer Takuya Kuroda is set to make his Blue Note debut with
the February 18 release of Rising Son, which was produced by José James.
Kuroda, who is best known for his inspired presence in James’ band, steps forth
here to helm that remarkable band which features keyboardist Kris Bowers,
electric bassist Solomon Dorsey, drummer Nate Smith, and trombonist Corey King.
James mostly stayed on the other side of the glass in the producer’s chair
except for a hypnotic version of the Roy Ayers classic “Everybody Loves The
Sunshine” to which he lends his captivating baritone. The imaginative guitarist
Lionel Loueke also contributes a bluesy, percussive solo to one of the album’s
standout tracks “Afro Blues.”
In
addition to anchoring James’ horn section for the past several years, the
33-year-old Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based Kuroda has been leading his own bands
and has self-released and self-produced three previous albums. While on the
road with James in support of the singer’s recent Blue Note debut No Beginning
No End he let James listen to some of his newer material. James enjoyed it but
wanted to hear more of Kuroda’s playing and so the idea developed to have James
produce the next album.
“No one
sounds like Takuya,” says James. “His tone, warmth and most of all his
storytelling have inspired me for years. His writing is soulful, modern, and
effortlessly bridges the gap between jazz and soul, and between history and
tomorrow.”
Afrobeat
rhythms play a crucial role throughout Rising Son, reflective of Kuroda’s
six-year participation in the New York-based Afrobeat ensemble, Akoya.
Afrobeat’s entrancing shuffle propels several of the album’s tracks including
the tantalizing “Afro Blues,” one of the album’s six original tunes on which
Kuroda’s spiky trumpet melody with urban swagger evokes Lee Morgan, one of
Kuroda’s significant influences along with Clifford Brown and Miles Davis. The
album also features two Roy Ayers’ gems – “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and
“Green & Gold.”
Kuroda
and James’ partnership dates to a decade ago at the New School of Music in
Manhattan. Kuroda was graduating during the time when James arrived at the
school. Nevertheless, they performed on a mutual friend’s senior piano recital.
James’ liked Kuroda’s playing and invited him to participate on his 2010
sophomore disc, BlackMagic. Kuroda made a memorable contribution on James’
composition “Promise In Love” from that album. James later recruited Kuroda for
live shows and the recording sessions for No Beginning No End, on which Kuroda
also wrote the horn arrangements.
Before
Kuroda arrived in the U.S. in 2003, he grew up in Kobe, Japan and followed his
older, trombone-playing brother’s footsteps by joining the junior high school
jazz band. While in Japan, Kuroda played in jazz bands for 12 years, from
junior high school through college jazz big band. But he says that he really
got into jazz by playing on the local jazz scene with the smaller combos. “The
big band was just playing music charts; it didn’t have much improvisation,”
Kuroda explains, “I sat in with a lot of the elders on the local scene. They
showed me so much love.”
Kuroda
eventually came to the U.S. where at the Berklee College of Music he had his
first formal jazz studies. “I never had a jazz music teacher in Japan. I took
my first music theory, ear training and jazz ensemble classes for the first
time in my life in English, which made it even crazier,” he says, “ But that
made me want to come to New York.”
With his
close association with James, Kuroda is primed to become a major voice on the
21st century modern soul-jazz scene with Rising Son signaling a new dawn.
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