Hideaki Hori & Wataru Hamasaki: Encounter

Feb 23, 2025

Encounter is the first album from co-leaders pianist Hideaki Hori and saxophonist Wataru Hamasaki, released in 2008. Since then, in addition to their other bands and activities, the two jazz musicians have continued to perform together and release many albums under the group name Encounter.

This first Encounter album is bursting with energy, and it feels like the inspiration that each player gets from the others irresistibly drives them to reach for the stars. The four members of Encounter—Wataru Hamasaki on sax and flute, Hideaki Hori on piano, Hiroshi Takase on bass, and Junji Hirose on drums—are always busy touring and playing in this regular group lineup for their live shows. In addition, as a special guest on their first album, Satoshi Takino plays electric guitar on three tracks.

These players present modern jazz built on the foundations of the classic contemporary jazz quartet sound. The sound and inspiration of the music owes a lot to the co-leadership of Hori and Hamasaki. These are the two primary songwriters for the band and seem to be cut from the same cloth, offering novel compositions with challenging terrain that the skilled improvisers navigate in breathtaking ways. Yet, they intentionally do not stray too far from the solid bedrock of reliably swinging jazz they cherish.

On Encounter, the songwriting pair recorded a set of 11 originals, with authorship split nearly evenly between the two composers. It’s clear that they enjoy writing (and that the band enjoys playing and delivering) excitingly aggressive uptempo burners, such as with #1 “ASK”, #4 “Signal”, #7 “OOPARTS”, #10 “Jack-O’-Lantern”.

The roots of their in-the-pocket swing also reach deep, perfected by the sense and time of bassist Takase and drummer Hirose. Much of the music provides a classic midtempo walking pulse, with the cheerful #2 “Breath of Life”, the crafty #3 “Puzzle Ring” (in 7/4 time), the confident #5 “Quarter man” (calling Dexter Gordon?), and the wonderful #9 “Wayne”.

Balancing out the near non-stop excitement and never-ending energy, there are a few slower ballads in the ephemeral #6 “Hanauta”, the romantic #8 “My Heart” (still calling LTD?), and the beautiful album closer #11 “Sound of Ocean”.

While this article focuses on Hori and Hamasaki’s 2008 Encounter, it would be serendipitous to mention some recent news here. At seventeen years and running, Encounter just released two new albums entitled Best Vol. 1 and Best Vol. 2 recently. These two compilations (of a sort) don’t indicate the twilight of Encounter. Instead, they are intended to meet a consistent demand for old albums, like this one, that are out of print or hard to find. At the same time, the two songwriters took this opportunity to revive, rearrange, and re-record popular songs from their live shows and early albums.

It’s also noteworthy that Encounter’s new album Best Vol. 1 also contains new versions of three songs from this album: “Sound of Ocean”, “My Heart”, and “Hanauta”.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Hideaki Hori’s and Wataru Hamasaki’s original Japanese liner notes.)

Song introductions by their composers:

ASK (Hideaki Hori)

This is a song that is often played to open our live performances. The energetic rhythm with a buoyant melody and chord progressions seem to stir up the front line of the band, urge them on, and put things in gear. This hints at the original hidden meaning of the title “ASK”… [The three-letter title in uppercase is an abbreviation for something mildly naughty enough to be avoided being printed on a jazz CD release at the time…]

Breath of life (Hideaki Hori)

This is a song dedicated to all living creatures. To the strength, joy, and vivaciousness of life. The beat that Hiroshi Takase and Junji Hirose spin expresses that vitality so wonderfully that, upon hearing, it, the heart naturally seems to start to dance.

Puzzle Ring (Wataru Hamasaki)

In Japanese translation, it’s 知恵の輪 (chie no wa). Depending on how you solve them, puzzle rings can be easy or difficult. This song has the feeling of playing with a puzzle ring. Also, Hideaki Hori’s base, the jazz club Nardis in Kashiwa, has a bunch of puzzle rings lined up on the counter, and he’s always playing with them. So this title was also chosen as a tribute to Nardis. I think we got a really well-coordinated take.

Signal (Wataru Hamasaki)

This song is actually a remake of a song that I wrote a long time ago. It turned into an up-tempo, aggressive performance. Inspired by guest guitarist Satoshi Takino, everyone is bursting with energy.

Quarter man (Hideaki Hori)

I wrote a song about my admiration of the coolness and the melancholy that can be ascribed to a man who has grown up to be an adult. Wataru Hamasaki’s calm tone has a great feel and fits this song perfectly.

花唄 -Hanauta- (Hideaki Hori)

This is a Japanese-style song where the flute almost sounds like a shakuhachi(!?). In fact, Hamasaki seems to have played this with a shakuhachi-like sound in mind. This melody came to me while I was out walking on a nice day in early spring. [The Japanese kanji for this song, 花唄 is read as “hanauta” here to mean “flower song”, and is a play on the similar-sounding word 鼻歌 “hanauta”, which means “humming”.]

OOPARTS (Wataru Hamasaki)

This title is an abbreviation of Out of Place Artifacts. This refers to those historical objects that were created by technology that’s hard to imagine existing when they were made—the moai statues of Easter Island, for example. I happened to be reading a book about OOPARTS at the time I wrote this song, which is where I got the title. Junji Hirose’s drumming during the theme section is quite invigorating.

My Heart (Wataru Hamasaki)

It’s been a long time since I wrote a ballad. I think I was able to include a lot of emotions in this song. This performance also captures a beautiful piano solo, wonderfully executed by Hideaki Hori.

Wayne (Hideaki Hori)

This is a song written for the beloved musician Wayne Shorter. You could also call it a hymn to hard bop with its truly jazzy feel, and listening to the theme transports musicians and listeners back to the 60s.

Jack-O’-Lantern (Hideaki Hori)

The theme is just one motif repeating over and over, with the energy increasing steadily, rising up, and heading towards the peak… I think this is that kind of song. Instead of traditional in-order soloing, it was Wataru Hamasaki’s idea to incorporate a dialogue between sax and piano. Satoshi Takino’s great guitar solo is also remarkable.

Sound of Ocean (Wataru Hamasaki)

This is a gospel-style song dedicated to the inspiration for the title of this song, kaikyou, which means Mother Ocean. Perhaps it’s because I was raised in a town where you could see the ocean, but every time I come to the sea I can forget all my worries and relax. We always play this song last at live performances, and Hideaki Hori and I agreed that we should also end the album with this song. I’m barely holding it together at the end (laughs), and since we were originally planning a fade out here, I was having some fun with it. Hideaki Hori really liked it, though, so we left it in as it was recorded. I’d love it if hearing this cheers you up a little bit.

Encounter by Hideaki Hori & Wataru Hamasaki

Hideaki Hori - piano
Wataru Hamasaki - tenor & soprano sax, flute
Hiroshi Takase - bass
Junji Hirose - drums
Satoshi Takino - guitar (tracks #1, 4, 10)

Released in 2008 on BQ Records as BQR-2043

Japanese names: Hideaki Hori 堀秀彰 (Hori Hideaki) Wataru Hamasaki 浜崎航 (Hamasaki Wataru) Hiroshi Takase 高瀬裕 (Takase Hiroshi) Junji Hirose 広瀬潤次 (Hirose Junji) Satoshi Takino 滝野聡 (Takino Satoshi)