Ever wondered what would happen if Justin Timberlake suddenly fell under the spell of Bud Powell? That’s essentially what happened fifteen years ago, when J-Pop superstar Senri Oe decided to give up his celebrity life in Japan and reconnect with his teenage love of Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk.

At 47 he moved to New York City, enrolled at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and reinvented himself as a jazz pianist.

With seven jazz albums to his name since his 2012 re-debut Boys Mature Slow, it had been safe to say that Oe never looked back – until now. On his latest album, Class of ’88, Oe comes full circle with a piano trio album revisiting several of his classic pop hits, featuring bassist Matt Clohesy (Darcy James Argue, Seamus Blake) and drummer Ross Pederson (Manhattan Transfer, Grace Kelly).

Due out June 30th, 2023 via PND and Sony Music Masterworks, the album is at once a surprising look back and a brilliant look at how far the pop star-turned-piano virtuoso has come.

1. Apollo (from Apollo 1991) - Trio
2. Bamboo Bamboo (from Apollo 1991) - Trio
3. Poetic Justice (New) - Solo
4. I Wanna Live With You (from Avec 1986) - Trio
5. The Glory Days (from 1234 1988) - Solo
6. Lauro De Freitas (New) - Trio
7. Stella’s Cough (from Olympic 1987) - Trio
8. Class Notes (New) - Solo
9. Cosmopolitan (from Chibusa 1985) - Trio
10. Time-Bouncing Fish (from Red Monkey Yellow Fish 1989) - Trio
11. Avec (from Avec 1986) - Solo

This magnificent, impassioned and at times re-sculptured new album opens on the title track from Oe’s 1990 album, Apollo, a seductive track that grabs you from the very off, and then we get the gently frenetic Bamboo Bamboo, the languishing beauty within his brand new solo song, Poetic Justice, before we are brought the gloriously sumptuous I Wanna Live With You and the synth rock pop of the solo track The Glory Days.

Along next is one of my own personal favorites, the soft dance floor swirl of the brand new trio track Lauro De Freitas and that is followed by the flourishing Stella’s Cough, the ornate new solo track Class Notes, the album rounding out on the mid-tempo love song Cosmopolitan, the finger-snapping Time-Bouncing Fish, closing on the yearning, solo ballad, Avec.

“It’s fun to turn the pages of the book called life,” Oe muses poetically. “Appearing on TV and being picked up in a huge limousine were valuable experiences for me. But starting over next to my 20-year-old classmates at the New School was also a valuable and fresh experience. This album is a trip back and forth into the past, the present and also the future.”

Album Teaser

Senri Oe - Stella’s Cough (Official Video)

www.peaceneverdie.com