TAKUYA KURODA *live

Born in Kobe, Japan, jazz musician and trumpeter Takuya Kuroda has developed a hybrid sound that draws from jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion and hip-hop, and breathes plenty of soul.

Based in New York since graduating from the New School at Union Square, where he studied jazz and contemporary music, Kuroda is firmly established in the music scene there and has collaborated with artists* such as Junior Mance, Greg Tardy, Akoya Afrobeat, Valery Ponomarev's big band and many others.

Kuroda is not only an incredibly gifted trumpeter, his ability to combine the classic hard bop jazz sounds of Lee Morgan and Art Blakey with the fusion feel of Herbie Hancock, for example, and then add a contemporary hip-hop flavor to that is his second and perhaps greatest talent.

This can be heard, among other things, on his now seventh studio album, Midnight Crisp (2022). On six tracks, Kuroda shows how to weave many different jazz and funk subgenres with progressive beats. Kuroda knows how to put the different pieces together properly. Intoxicating!