Description:

Mitsuhiro Itagaki has been a prominent figure in the Japanese jazz scene for more than 20 years. His light and beautiful piano melodies are joined by two different groups of young and mid-career drum & bass players. Brilliant saxophone adds flowers to the luxurious sound. In the midst of the Corona disaster, Mr. Kaneno of T-Tech Records asked us, "Why don't you make an album? I was asked by Mr. Kinno of Tee Toc Records, "Why don't you make an album? He told me that he had paid attention to my varied career as a sideman, from big band to combo and other genres, as well as my performance activities specializing in solo piano and DUO, under circumstances where there were hardly any customers at the live houses. Although I was mentally quite exhausted, I accepted without hesitation because I wanted to move forward anyway in this uncontrollable situation and cherish encounters, intuition, and inspiration. At first, the project started with the image of a sequel to the solo piano album "My Lounge Music" released in 2016.I played the piano by myself for the recording, but I felt that I had played too many solo piano gigs and was burnt out from my first hall concert as a solo piano player in February 2021, and the more I prepared, the more inspiration and excitement I lost. The more I prepared for the concert, the more I was losing inspiration and excitement. Then I stopped by J-flow, a jam session store in Kinshicho, and met Kanae Konuma (ds) and Masato Shirahata (b), both in their 20s. They are both in their 20s. They are both in their twenties, and while fresh, their playing is excellent and they have a lot of respect for jazz. After playing a few songs together, I knew I wanted to play live with them! On a hunch, they immediately adjusted their schedule. The first show was more exciting than I had expected. Although we had only just met, I had a feeling that we would have a lot of fun if we continued playing music together for a long time. So we decided to change the recording project from a solo piano piece to a trio piece at a moment's notice.On the other hand, I have been working with Ritsuko Mishina (ds), who contributed greatly to the "passionate" sound of Itagaki's original songs in the previous trio work "Love Is Blue," and I had hoped to make a sequel one day. I had a hunch again: "It would be good to have two rhythm groups on one album! The bass player was Hironobu Otsuki (b), who has the nuance of a jazz bass player. And this time, we also invited a special guest, Yuya Yoneda (as), a long-time member of Yosuke Yamashita (p)'s band, to bring out the "behind-the-scenes" side of the Itagaki Trio. As if guided by a chance or a hunch, the project progressed rapidly, and we have completed an unprecedented work of music, a mixture of originals and standards, featuring two trios of different generations and types, and offering a sumptuous sound and the full enjoyment of jazz. We hope you will enjoy this album with various scenes in your mind. (From the artist)