Arina Fujiwara is an up-and-coming pianist and arranger-composer who recently graduated from the Manhattan School of Music.

Her first recording, a six-song EP entitled Neon (out October 2nd, 2023) is ambitious and inventive in equal measures. Her piano is teamed with vibraphonist Vid Jamnik, guitarist Brand Kang, bassist Dan Finn, drummer Mikkel Blaesild Vuust, and a string quartet for four originals and fresh renditions of a Japanese children’s song and the ragtime classic Maple Leaf Rag.

With the release of Neon, Arina has taken her first giant step forward as a significant jazz artist, displaying not only quite a bit of potential, but a strikingly original voice.

1. Yuki Ga Furu (5:28)
2. Hotaru Koi (4:47)
3. Neon (6:31)
4. Komorebi (4:32)
5. Vol. 1 (4:58)
6. Maple Leaf Rag (3:09)

This rewarding set opens on the aching, at first, playful and airy the next jazz waltz Yuki Ga Furu and the ornately sculpted, yet wildly rhythmic, traditional Hotaru Koi and then brings us the stirringly elegant Neon, the late night ambiance of the romantic Komorebi, the recording rounding out on the upbeat and free flowing Vol. 1, closing on a severely modernized rendition of the aforementioned, early ragtime musical composition for piano (composed by Scott Joplin), the joyously captivating Maple Leaf Rag.

Arina Fujiwara @ YouTube