UA + Naruyoshi Kikuchi - cure jazz

She's everyone's favorite J-Pop experimenter, bringing elements of Aretha Franklyn and Bjork into a a stirring boil, and he's a professer of music at Tokyo University, Japanese jazz legend (including creating soundtracks for "Daiteiden no Yoru ni" and as part of Seatbelts for "Cowboy Bebop"), and mainstay on the Japanese indie music scene with his influential bands Spank Happy and Date Course Pentagon Royal Garden. And now, my favorite vocalist UA and saxophone giant Naruyoshi Kikuchi are united for a unique take on jazz with their upcoming album "cure jazz."

After collaborating on UA's previous albums and launching a tour resulting in the fantastic UA live album "la," UA and Kikuchi decided collaborate for a jazz standards album. The finished product includes 12 tracks of which six are standards from jazz history and six are UA and Naruyoshi Kikuchi originals. Session musicians include Masayasu Tzboguchi on piano, Masato Suzuki on bass, and Nobuo Fujii on drums.

The new album "cure jazz" comes out July 19, 2006. Also check out UA and Naruyoshi Kikuchi at the 2006 Fuji Rock Festival (with additional guest appearance by UA during the Fishmans set).