TOKU – Love Again
Artist : TOKU
Album : Love Again
Released Date : November 26, 2008
Label : Sony Music Japan International Inc.
It’s been more than 2 and a half year since TOKU released his album, and now he’s back stronger than ever with his new album. “LOVE AGAIN”, that’s the title, is a very interesting album released as his 8th album.
TOKU is a jazz musician with special talents. He is the only Japanese flugelhorn player today, he plays great, he knows how to make the music speaks about many things through his flugelhorn. Not only that, he is also gifted with his unique voice, a unique deep baritone voice that you’ll recognize right away as his. As what I called, a destiny-made jazzer (see his profile here and see some pictures taken from his performance at Java Jazz Festival 2009 here), TOKU has grown better and better with each album he made.
This time TOKU gave a try on many things. He stepped into the nu-jazz with delicious broken-beat, tried a little folk country, R&B flava, the sound of gospel music, and blended them all into his taste of jazz. I have to tell you, they all worked very well. There are 5 songs that co-wrote by Shanti Snyder, one of the great Japanese songwriter today. In “LOVE AGAIN”, TOKU also made the right choice by pushing his vocal in front of other things.
Listen to the first song of the album, and you’ll feel right away that there’s something new offered in this album. “A Whole New Life” is a nice pop jazz with a touch of R&B and the sound of gospel style of music, that gives a hint about the new TOKU. Now, let’s talk about “Rock With You”. Familiar with the title? Yes, it’s Michael Jackson‘s famous song, that interestingly transformed into the modern broken-beat of nu jazz. This is an unpredictable version that delivered nicely by TOKU. As well as “Nostalgikos”, a really nice nu jazz flavor with his flugelhorn scrabbing the song along with the groovy beat. “Again” is a sweet song as a duet beetween TOKU and one of Exile‘s vocalist, Atsushi. What a nice surprise, this is a two men duet, and more surprisingly the result is great. “Now You’re Not Here” is a famous Swing Out Sister‘s song that now delivered by keeping all the beauty of the original. “Half Moon Bay” is a fresh-feeling and relaxing song that started with the flugelhorn. Deeper is a romantic song that will leave you breathless. “Our Love Story” described his R&B taste inside a beautiful jazz pattern.
Another interesting song is “You Are Special”. In this song TOKU stretched his path entering the folk country style, like how Norah Jones used to do. “Lady Spy” is a song that will remind you with the style of any James Bond’s theme. The teasing chords, the brass sound, the melody, they are all perfectly done to create this very interesting song. Last but not least, listen to the last song called “She”. I remember this song so well, originally sang by Charles Aznavour that was a big hit back in 1974. I really love this song. Starting with acoustic guitar, then enters the nice swinging tunes with the orchestra. This song will blow you away anytime you listen to it.
One of the reason of why I love jazz is the freedom of expression that can be presented harmoniously in it. And with his new album, “LOVE AGAIN”, TOKU has shown his endless passion to explore various kinds of music and brought it home to jazz. TOKU has made an excellent progress that can clearly be seen by the song choice, the arrangement, his vocal and of course his flugelhorn playing. “LOVE AGAIN” is an album that you’ll love from start to finish. The unique baritone vocal, the nice flugelhorn sound, 11 wonderful songs in different flavors, all delivered by a man that I believe is destined to live in jazz. This is one of the album you should place among your favorite jazz collections.
Tracklistings:
01 A Whole New Life
02 Rock With You
03 Our Love Story
04 Again (duet with ATSUSHI from EXILE)
05 Nostalgikos
06 Y.S. (You’re Special)
07 Half Moon Bay
08 Now You’re Not Here
09 Deeper
10 Lady Spy
11 She (Wella(P&G) CF song)
Buy it online at:
TOKU – Love Again at SA-CD.net
TOKU – Love Again at Amazon.com
Visit TOKU’s official website at: http://toku-jazz.com/
Reviewed by: Riandy Kurniawan
Popularity: 37% [?]
[...] TOKU is a very talented jazz musician and singer from the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. He is one of the rare flugelhorn player in Japan that also blessed with a unique baritone vocal. No less than 8 album has been released by TOKU, the recent one, “LOVE AGAIN” was released last November. (see the album review here) [...]