Label: Unprivate
Catalog#: -
Country: Japan
Genre, Style: Jazz, Broken Beat, Hip-Hop
Release Date: 29 Dec 2008
Format: MP3, VBR kbps
Size: 56 mb

Kenichiro Nishihara is a Japanese producer with a yen for jazz and hip-hop. But in his capacity as a keyboardist, he also shows a keen ear for incorporating a little classicism into "Humming Jazz." And while it might be just a big lightweight for your average hip-hopper, it’s an interesting detour nonetheless.

Kicking off with a samba-meets-jungle-lite “Nebulosa,” "Humming Jazz" is constantly switching gears from piano-based, house-inflected hip-hop (“Heart”) to straight-ahead R&B (“Rain Falls”) to jazz shuffle (“Step Out”).

And though Nishihara shows a few deft moves on his piano throughout the album’s 43 minutes, much of it comes across as the same soup, reheated. Mellow jazz chords keep the proceedings airy, but maybe a little too airy at times. It’s hip-hop moments seem to float by, while the up-tempo moments are saved for R&B numbers.

Ultimately, like a lot of Japanese pop, "Humming Jazz" is ripe to be remixed as a set of club jams. Nishihara’s guest rappers are lightweight at best – Gregg Green is a Nas clone who has a nice tenor voice for the chorus, and Pismo drops a nice couple verses on the best hip-hop song of the bunch, “Consider My Love,” but nothing revolutionary – and his jazz-lite production could use a little more thump.

Tracklist:

01 Nebulosa (Album Mix)
02 Heart feat. Substantial
03 Rain Falls feat. Kissey Asplund
04 From Time To Time feat. Gregg Green
05 Childhood Interlude
06 Consider My Love feat. Pismo
07 Life Is Like a Samba feat. Monica Vasconcelos
08 Life's a Deck Of Heart feat. Gregg Green
09 Step Out
10 Willing feat. Alison Crocket
11 Slip Away
12 Step Firmly Slowly