Andrea Centazzo, Akira Sakata, Kiyoto Fujiwara

*2023 stock* "On a summer-like evening of May 2012 in Milan, Italy, three master improvisers played together for the first time, and created music full of spontaneity and ethereal beauty at JapzItaly – Jazz Aid for Japanese Children. At a superficial level, Andrea Centazzo – the idiosyncratic composer and percussionist renowned for refined finesse – and Akira Sakata – the iconoclastic reedman famed with volcanic emotional display – would make an ‘odd’ musical team. Despite this presumption, guided by their keen listening attentiveness, Centazzo and Sakata mutually unmasked the hidden allure of their music. To this end, the contribution of Kiyoto Fujiwara’s virtuosic and imaginative bass lines cannot be overstated. So here they are, “Bridges” for the children (and adults and elders, too) who are still suffering from the catastrophic aftermath of the great earthquake and tsunami that devastated Tohoku regions of Japan on March 11, 2011." - Nobu Stowe