The Kobe-born, New York-based trumpeter Takuya Kuroda has brought together the city’s musical alloys and expressions in his multifaceted music that mixes soul jazz, hard bop, fusion, afrobeat, funk and hip-hop in a smoking kaleidoscope where Kuroda himself plays from within the music.
Lee Morgan is a trumpeter who is close to Kuroda’s heart, and Kuroda has become something of a musician favorite himself. After following his brother into the local music scene in Kobe, Takuya Kuroda moved to New York to study jazz and contemporary music at The New School in Union Square. Here, Kuroda befriended José James, appearing on two of the singer’s albums and writing the backing tracks for his breakthrough album, 2013’s No Beginning No End. After graduation, he further established himself in the New York jazz scene, performing with artists such as Akoya Afrobeat and with DJ Premier, one half of the seminal hip-hop duo Gang Starr.
Two years ago, Kuroda released his sixth album Fly Moon Die Soon where he took further steps in his sonic world. He himself said this about the record: “this album is about the irony between the greatness of nature and the beautiful obsceneness of humanity. Melodies and grooves fly back and forth from being spiritual to being vulgar.”
An evening somewhere between the spiritual and the vulgar, could it get more interesting? No, we don’t think so when Fasching opens the doors to Takuya Kuroda.
