Though many postmodern jazz musicians are tireless experimentalists, they often end up producing interesting concepts more than good music. Pianist, composer and band leader Hiroshi Minami, however, is that rare jazz musician who sets up intriguing musical challenges that feel natural. He plays an engaging postmodern style that achieves that elusive jazz ideal -- an authentic voice all of its own.
Last year's release, "Celestial Inside," found Minami and his Go There quartet at ease in their own brand of exuberant postmodern jazz. As on his other recordings over the last 10 years, Minami's way of positioning concepts, compositions and musicians yields a very creative friction and intriguing jazz.
Though he plays regularly in Tokyo's many jazz clubs, Minami's restless attitude led him to work on remixes of several of the tracks from "Celestial Inside" with synthesized sounds, overdubbed rhythm tracks and DJ collaborations. He also began performing outside the often trad-minded jazz world, bringing his group to play on bills with other edgy, postmodern "jazz" groups around Tokyo.