#yuya wakai

[mostlymonk]

In Walked Bud

Maiko Jazz Violin

Maiko – violin Yuya Wakai – piano Yosuke Inoue – bass Rei Yamada – drums

[onett199x]

Yuya Wakai | Ghibli In Happy Forest

My most recent acquisition from Japan is the second album I’ve picked up by pianist Yuya Wakai after his solo album, Images.  This album alternates between solo piano tracks and trio recordings with bassist Shunya Wakai (I can only assume they’re related) and drummer Hirofumi Katsuki.  On two tracks, Yuya Wakai is replaced on piano by Taikoh Kikuchi.  All of the music here is from the soundtracks of Hayao Miyazaki films.  I myself have only ever seen Princess Mononoke, and that was probably 5-6 years ago now, so I’m not familiar with this material.  I think I like his album Images a little better, even though I usually prefer trio recordings, because I think there was just more going on on it.  The tracks on here are all pretty short and don’t feature a ton of improvisation, although a few of them are interesting.  It’s a little hard for me to review this on a track by track basis because all of the titles are written in Japanese and I can’t really read Japanese, but anyway.  I think the contrast between this and Images shows a musician growing into a more personal, unique sound.  

[mie-integrative-pharm]

CBI学会2020年大会

Search for preventive drugs against Cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity using public database and electronic medical records. 　Eri Wakai, Yuya Suzumura, Yuhei Nishimura

[tonyguppy]

#千葉 X'mas event w/ Chaka and Wakai Yuya #steelpan #tonyguppy https://www.instagram.com/p/Brey6CVnsAr/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vikn0ykg0ua5

[onett199x]

Yuya Wakai | Images

Yuya Wakai is a Japanese jazz pianist whose music is, frankly, kind of difficult to track down.  This was the only album of his that was available on Amazon.  It came out in 2014 and is a solo piano album consisting mostly of standards, with a couple of originals (I liked M.O.B. a lot - In Love In The Rain was a good slower one as well.  Wasn’t as big on Afterimages, which is a little on the out there/modern classical side) as well as a Paul McCartney song and the theme song from an anime (Macross Plus, I think?  One of the ones that Yoko Kanno did the score for).  Having looked up his other albums, it seems like he’s a big fan of anime, considering one of them is all covers of music from Studio Ghibli films, and the other is all covers of anime shows or video game music.  Those ones are a little harder to find, though, so it might be a while before I can get them.

I want to, though, because it’s obvious from this recording that he is an extremely talented player.  He can do fast and technical, and he can do slow and meaningful as well - I particularly enjoyed his take on Over The Rainbow, a tune that has really resonated a lot with me personally in the last year or so.  I don’t want to say this is like, a modern classic or anything, but I do think Yuya Wakai should be someone to watch for fans of jazz piano and of Japanese jazz music.