A Shade Of Blue Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio

• 1Speed Ball Blues09:45
• 2Speak Low06:50
• 3The Way We Were06:21
• 4Like Someone In Love05:31
• 5Black Is The Color07:09
• 6Girl Talk06:58
• 7Midnight Sugar06:08
• 8Last Tango In Paris08:46
• 9Misty06:24
• 10Bye Bye Blackbird06:21
• Total Runtime01:10:13

Info for A Shade Of Blue

Japanese Jazz legend Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's new album, A Shade Of Blue, undoubtedly reflects his love of the piano trio, a group configuration that in jazz history began in the 1940s with Nat King Cole and then was developed in the 50s by innovators like Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and Bill Evans. Yamamoto's highly experienced trio - which has a combined age of 215 years - features bassist Hiroshi Kagawa and drummer Toshio Osumi. A Shade Of Blue reveals the three musicians' incredible musical chemistry; listening to the ten tracks they've recorded together, it's as if they breathe, think, and feel as one person; such is the musical empathy between them.

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, piano
Hiroshi Kagawa, double bass
Toshio Osumi, drums

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
was largely self-taught as a pianist, although he did have piano lessons as a child. He attended Nihon University. As a student there, he played professionally, first as an accompanist to pop singer Micky Curtis; they toured Europe in 1967. In 1974, he became house pianist at Misty, a Tokyo jazz club. He also made his recording debut as leader that year. He played major international festivals in the late 1970s. He also "lived in New York for a year, when he performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, and Sonny Stitt, among others."

This album contains no booklet.