富澤えいちの執筆担当記事の紹介です。
Serenade in Ala Moana” by Kota Miyama
Piano magic of an “unknown veteran” that enhances the medicinal effect of “healing”
”Serenade in Ala Moana” is a new release by Kota Miyama, a jazz pianist with the mysterious catchphrase “unknown veteran but famous” floating around the Internet. As indicated by the title “Ala Moana” (the name of a place in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, known as a scenic and stylish area of interest), this album, his first for national distribution, was recorded in Hawaii and produced by Haruhiko Takanouchi. As indicated by the name of the album (Honolulu is the name of a place in Honolulu, known as a scenic and stylish area), the album was recorded in Hawaii with Haruhiko Takauchi as the producer. The first thing that struck me when I started listening to the album without any preconceived notions was the sense of song selection and playing style. It may be a misnomer to call it “loungey,” but the style of expressing a sense of swing in the perfect number of piano notes, not too many and not too few, is both bebop, which is directly related to the exposure of the ego, and the kind of music that bends realism through an inner filter. This style is distinct from bebop, which tries to directly link the expression of the ego, and from impressionism, which uses an internal filter to bend realism, and I felt that it is a unique style that harmonizes with the scene, but leaves a core strength that will never be buried. This is what makes it possible to juxtapose “Misty” with the shoka song “Furusato (Hometown). To add to this, they were fearless enough to include Astro Boy, the theme song of Astro Boy, in this album. The fact that all the songs are full of medicinal effects of “healing” can be attributed to the thick-skinned jazz mind. <Eichi Tomizawa>
JAZZ LIFE 2021年 01 月号