There is hardly an album title more fitting than the Blue Note debut of Takuya Kuroda. Rising Son (2014) represents a protégé who is stepping out of the shadow of his master. In the case of the Kobe-born trumpeter, the master is José James, with whom the Brooklyn-based musician-composer has worked for years. Kuroda was musically educated in his home country, but was accepted at the famed Berklee College of Music in 2003. The 34-year-old musician really thrived musically in New York, where he developed his style that moves between post-bop and soul jazz, with a large dose of hip hop and Afro-beat. Kuroda plays with young jazz talents, but clicked best with James; so he wrote his wind scores and played them, too. It comes as no surprise that James produced the third album of the Japanese trumpeter.
