Duet Yuki Arimasa & Hisatugu Suzuki

• 1 Prologue 10:22
• 2 Goodbye 12:22
• 3 All the Things You are 08:35
• 4 Just Friends 15:13
• 5 Epilogue 15:21
• Total Runtime 01:01:53

Info for Duet

The recording the duet's performances under the policy that “a good performance should not only disappear after a moment, but also be preserved as a record. Arimasa Yuki started playing with tenor saxophonist Suzuki Hisatugu in August 2008. The memorable first performance was held here at Jazz Club-UNAMAS on August 12 TOKYO. The session was recorded to record this first performance, and the natural yet tense and three-dimensional fusion of their conversation showed the great potential of this unit.

The M-01 prologue and M-05 epilogue are free improvisations that they perform in both are truly once-in-a- lifetime performances. The other three songs are standers, but we hope you will take the time to enjoy how the two of them interpreted them.

A pianist Arimasa Yuki who has released CD-VOL01/VOL02 and other 3 solo piano albums in the studio and at Ohga Hall on the UNAMAS label. His beautiful piano touch and layered chord work at any volume, as well as his swinging rhythmic sense in odd time signatures, seem to strike a pulse when my recording.

Tenor player Hisatugu Suzuki, who has often performed here at UNAMAS as a member of the Tomonao Hara or Dairiki Hara deliver a beautiful phrase, whether pianissimo or intense, with each note never ending ambiguously, as if he were reciting a poem on his saxophone.

Recording was done with my favorite SANKEN CO-100KX2 on piano and the old and new ROYER R-122 ribbon microphone for saxophone. Recording was done from the transparent and wide bandwidth RME OCT MIC-2 on mic pre to PYARMIX DAW at 96kHz-24bit.

Originally released as an XR-CD in 2009, this is the first document of a session that captured the gentle and sometimes intense dialogue between the two personalities from August 2008 to August 2009 lives, and is a tribute to Hisatugu Suzuki who unfortunately passed away in December 2024. This album was remastered at 96kHz-24bit with RE-MIX.

Yuki Arimasa, piano
Hisatugu Suzuki, tenor saxophone

Yuki Arimasa
After spending time in the U.S. for 15 years,Yuki settled back in Japan and focused on the piano trio format. He recorded “Tell Me Where The Music Is”, which expressed his musical artistry through his original compositions. As Yuki Arimasa Trio continues to broaden the possibilities in trio format, the desire to explore music further in even smaller format as in piano solo and duet grew and in the past several years, he had number of piano solo and duo appearances in the concerts and club gigs. In 2011 the solo album “Forest” was released, which consists of his original compositions, followed by “Vol. One”, the duet album with Tomonao Hara, as the first release of Duo Project. This project continued to another duo album, “The Days of Wine and Roses”. Recently he released the second solo album, “Dimensions”, which he utilized the classical compositions to enhance the possibilities in improvised music.Along with those projects, he continues to perform with many players with highest musical passion around Tokyo area. Most recently he focuses on yet another project of a trio without bass.The band named “TrioSamadhi” was formed by Yuki, Hisatsugu Suzuki (Tenor Sax) and his his long time musical colleague Dairiki Hara (Drums).

Currently TrioSamadhi has been consistently making club dates throughout Japan to explore the new style in free expression in Jazz music. Yuki started Jazz music self-taught as when he first listened to Jazz at the age of 10, he found nobody around to learn from. As his passion grows he went to Berklee College of Music to receive formal training in Jazz. In Berklee he met much respected classical pianist/teacher Edward C. Bedner whose piano education still has strong influence in his piano playing. With Ed Bedners’ direction Yuki almost relearned the piano and developed some classical repertoire. After graduating he taught Jazz Piano at Berklee for 8 years. This experience of teaching students from all over the world gave him a perspective in Jazz education, which he continues to carry into his current activities in musical education in Senzoku College of Music as a professor in Jazz. He has also actively involved in Elementary School Jazz Education Program. Yuki now performs his music and conducts many workshops for Jazz fans and young musicians throughout Japan as well as many foreign countries. In 2016, he founded, “Artist Green“, an organization to become a communicational, educational platform for musicians from all over the world.

As a leader of Artist Green, he has been performing a role of musical director for the annual educational Jazz Festival, “Wa Meets Jazz”, gave workshops in Manila, Taipei, worked as a judge for the Jazz Competition at Montoruex Jazz in Kawasaki, Singapore International Jazz Battle.

Booklet for Duet