I often play the piano when I feel OK.  Also guitar and Ukulele are my favourite music instruments, but probably I like the piano above all.

I started playing the piano when I was 25 years old. So it’s very late.  I still remember the first motive for my piano passion, which was the encounter with Bill Evans.

In Japan, there were many Jazz Cafe or Coffee Shops with Jazz music when I was then young. Now many of them are gone and Jazz already became an easy listening music.  Back then, Jazz was still like a mental journey with the improvisation by the players.

Bill Evans gave me the deeper emotion of music. When he plays even on the records, everything around me stopped but my emotion only moved.  That was a strange awakening to Jazz, and it made me go to piano shops.

I like playing Bill Evans numbers, but copying them are not interesting.  Notes are made only by his play of improvisation.  Copying them is kind of losing individual.

But when I play the piano, I certainly think of him and I imagine how he feels if he played the number I play. He never disappears from me, and today again, he came up in my heart over my piano play.