Akane Matsumoto & Ayumi Koketsu: Trust

Apr 12, 2025

Trust is a 2024 release from the duo of pianist Akane Matsumoto and saxophonist Ayumi Koketsu. These two musicians are leaders of their own combos, members of other groups, and also friends and working bandmates for many years running. The pair have gathered a lot of performance experience from live shows and tours taken together and have developed a deep connection between their musical instincts. Surprisingly, Trust is the first album they’ve recorded together. This serendipitously timed release also commemorates twelve years of their working together, a number that is meaningful in Japan for its significance in cyclic durations and milestones, symbolizing the closing of loops and the start of new stages. Perhaps it can be said that trust grows over time, and it’s wise not to rush it.

Matsumoto and Koketsu’s Trust includes seven tracks of sax and piano duo arrangements and runs at about 41 minutes. The selection is drawn from material they admire and are very familiar with. This includes some of their favorite songs and composers such as Tom Harrell, Richard Rodgers, Enrico Pieranunzi, and Lee Konitz. Speaking of Konitz, sax player Koketsu has an affinity for and a likeness to alto sax players like Art Pepper and Lee Konitz. One of her albums is simply titled Art, and the Matsumoto/Koketsu duo has been known to play certain tunes from the Lee Konitz/Lennie Tristano cool jazz repertoire including “Subconscious-Lee”, “Wow”, and Konitz’s “Stephanie”, which opens this album.

Full videos for three of the album’s tracks are available online (#1 “Stephanie”, #2 “Border Line”, and #4 “Chet”) and show the actual performance recording made for this album, and the three other videos feature the duo in an equally captivating live setting (links to the videos are included below).

As a duo, the mood of the music departs just a bit from Matsumoto’s trademark happy bebop virtuosity — her heroes being Oscar Peterson and Phineas Newborn Jr. — and Koketsu’s wide-ranging, modern edge. They are clearly comfortable and confident together, alternately leading, following, or playing simultaneously, and trading positions intuitively without needing to rely on standard waypoints or signals. With the familiarity and skill that the duo has built together over the years, their sense of time, tone, jazz phrasing, and playing fills the air with subdued hues and room-filling colors, languidly refreshed like a cat stretching out of a nap.

That’s not to say it’s all romantic ballads and sleepy atmospheres. As a single album, the moods are all of a piece, conveying integrity, solidarity, and belief. It’s music that is refined, soft, and fresh, but can be dreamily veiled (#4 “Chet”) and hauntingly moody (#7 “Spartacus Love Theme”) at times as well. The selection of music performed with indisputable skill and wisdom makes their playing intimate, comfortable, and familiar. It’s a perfect fit for the theme of Trust that this album embodies.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Akane Matsumoto and Ayumi Koketsu’s original Japanese liner notes.)

Thank you for purchasing this album.

Twelve years have passed since the start of this duo. We’ve played together so many times that it’s impossible to count. We’ve raised each other through trial and error, playing each of our compositions and interpretations of many jazz originals, and always striving for an even better sound day by day. Through tours of the country and conversations about many things, we’ve discussed everything from our music to thinking more deeply about our individual characters. Along with the respect we have for one another, I believe that we’ve built a relationship based on absolute mutual trust. At this point in time, with the accumulation of these many years since we started, it felt right and somehow inevitable to create a duo album together, and it’s very moving for me. We made Trust wholeheartedly while thinking about the path we’ve walked together over these twelve years. Here’s to the hope that this album can touch people’s hearts, whether one person or as many people as possible. (Ayumi Koketsu)

Stephanie

This is a beautiful ballad written by Lee Konitz. The somewhat nostalgic, heartwarming melody of this song seems to bring the performers together. Although there was a set tempo for the performance, the most important thing was to have our natural rhythms come together. Even as we were taking breaths at the same time, we moved to connect the sounds as if singing together. I believe that we were only able to perform this way because of the mutual trust and closeness that we’ve built up over the years. (Ayumi Koketsu)

Border Line

This recording was made over two days. With a feeling close to that of when we perform together, we could relax from start to finish by hearing one another’s live sound right next to each other. I could sense a natural flow to the music as a result of the sound and outlook that we’ve cultivated over a long time together, and it moved me many times during the performance. In particular, I feel that track #1 “Stephanie” and this take set the direction for the entire album. I’m proud that we have been able to continue to develop our band-like sound in the flexible form of a duo, and I’m extremely pleased that it’s now taken shape as this album. (Akane Matsumoto)

Spring Is Here

This is a song written by Richard Rogers in 1938 for a musical. The opening has a slightly floating atmosphere, and the second half brings a transition to a calm and reassuring melody. It’s a song I really like as I can play it in a very relaxed manner. For this recording, an introductory arrangement was added. It’s a good song for relaxing, taking your time, and listening to leisurely. (Ayumi Koketsu)

Chet

If I was asked, “Which three duo albums would you take with you to a desert island?”… People Time by Stan Getz and Kenny Barron is a must, and I can’t let go of my favorite album Kids by Joe Lovano and Hank Jones. I would definitely take Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry, which is always guaranteed to make me feel happy. I would love to continue absorbing 1+1 by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Of course, I can’t forget Solitudes by Lee Konitz and Enrico Pieranunzi, which includes this song, “Chet”. Speaking for myself, it would be really tough to try to narrow it down to just three albums (haha). The genuine charm of the small form of a duo is the intimate conversation arising from the notes. And the more the heart opens, the more free it becomes. This one-to-one real-life communication, with all its humanity and stimulation, goes deeper than the surface and allows us to recognize and accept one another’s aesthetics and ideas. (Akane Matsumoto)

It’s Easy to Remember

This is a song written by Richard Rogers in 1935 for a movie. This may be the song we play most often as a duo. It’s permeated us so much so that we can begin it just through eye contact, without any prior arrangement or discussion. For this recording, we played it without deciding anything beforehand, with the sense that it was like a regular live performance. It’s a long take that unfolds over a comfortable stretch of time. I hope you can enjoy this as if you were listening closely to a ballad in a live setting. (Ayumi Koketsu)

Coral Sea

There’s a place I always visit whenever I go back to my hometown. Near my house, there’s a seemingly never-ending path through a rice field. As I’m enjoying the scent of the earth and the song of the skylarks while keeping an eye open for frogs playing in the path, I’m filled with the relief of being in the midst of nature. The sky of San’in can be seen in a sweeping 180 degrees. Mount Daisen, the Fuji of Hoki, towers over a small mountain range far in the distance. Now that I’ve been living in Tokyo for quite some time, I’m able to keenly reflect on the joy of being raised in a land rich with nature. Someday I’d like to capture this beautiful scenery and atmosphere and put it into music. Tom Harrell often writes pieces that have themes of nature, and it feels as if he transforms his emotions about the seasons and landscapes directly into his songs. If you close your eyes and listen to this song, you can just picture the beautiful coral reefs spreading out in the calm, emerald-green sea. (Akane Matsumoto)

Spartacus Love Theme

This is a ballad made famous by Bill Evans’ beautiful performance. The soft, gentle sound of alto sax elevates the striking melody. I’ve shared the stage with Ayumi countless times, and we’ve lived through the same period in music together. For me, the term “sworn friends” is a perfect fit. We’ve continued our work while supporting, accepting, and complimenting one another. The deep understanding of what is important to each of us and the many heartfelt discussions we’ve had may just be the source of strength for our music. For twelve years we’ve been pursuing the goal of striving to make our music better and better, together. This album is both a culmination of that, as well as a new starting point for the next stage. (Akane Matsumoto)

Obi Notes

A twelve-year path walked together, carefully listening to and harmonizing with each other’s sound. As musicians on a long and challenging journey, uncovering the secret to expressing the wonders of music. It’s nothing other than “Trust.”