This year has been a very busy year, with one of the main highlights being the concert with Kanna Yabusaki and bass player Jeff Curry. We played at Blue Eyes in Ginza with a full house the whole night and really made some interesting music. For me, this year has been all about gaining more independence harmonically, since I find myself playing in small groups more and more often. Another really successful gig I had was with guitarist Yosuke Yokoyama. Harmonically, we found a lot of spaces that I really want to delve into more next year. It's always hard to strike a balance between playing tunes accurately while pushing the boundaries at the same time.
With only a few months left in the year I'm looking forward to 'Ichifes' which is an annual festival held in Ichikawa City on the third Sunday in October every year. It is the third time for me to play in this festival and I have been asked to put together a jazz quartet to play requests to the local crowd.
Among other concerts to wrap up the year, will be the concert at Nut Point Center in Christchurch New Zealand with Kanna Yabusaki and Christchurch based bass player Mike Kime. In this concert we will play some of our newest compositions. I'm looking forward to trying out some of these works in a different environment. A very exciting time and Big expectations for the new year.