Kaori Osawa

Kaori Osawa: Aluminum

by Glenn Astarita
September 20, 2007

Tokyo-based pianist Kaori Osawa studied under avant-jazz stalwart Aki Takase, the latter, now residing in Germany. But what is striking about this solo piano outing is her uncanny ability to convey a visible component that perhaps mimics the abstract attributes within contemporary art. She paints a canvass that is built on improvisation and composition to counterbalance the lone standard, a semi-free deconstruction of Monk's “Well You Needn't.

But this isn't just another solo piano jaunt. The artist ...