Takashi Matsunaga

Takashi Matsunaga: Storm Zone

by Craig W. Hurst
August 18, 2004

With the release of Storm Zone on the venerable Blue Note record label, the jazz world has been put on notice that there is a new rising son on the horizon among other jazz notables such as Toshiko Akiyoshi, Tiger Okoshi, Sadao Watanabe, and Keiko Matsui, who also hail from the Land of the Rising Sun. A talented composer, improvisor and pianist, Takashi's musical maturity belies his age. He plays with a level of deft and depth that solidly contributes ...

Takashi: Storm Zone

by Michael P. Gladstone
March 10, 2004

Released last month, this is the American recording debut of a 17 year-old pianist performing nine original compositions with his trio. Long a child prodigy, Takashi (Matsunaga) first played professionally two years ago with the noted Arrow Jazz Orchestra in Japan.

In a word, this young musician appears to have absorbed the entire vocabulary of mainstream jazz piano trios of the modern era. That is not meant as a demeaning remark. It is difficult to single out a ...