Keiko Matsui The Jazz Channel (2001)

Overview

Keiko Matsui may have won a few Smooth Jazz Awards, but the Japanese- born, classically influenced keyboardist’s music is not jazz–at least not if your definition of jazz includes swinging, the blues, and improvisation, all of which are in relatively short supply in this nearly 90-minute performance (plus DVD bonus features, including an interview with the artist). Not that it matters, really. Whatever you call the style–“contemporary instrumental” seems as good a term as any–Matsui is one of its more appealing, and certainly most popular, exponents.