Hana

What a pleasant surprise. This fusion of eastern melodies with western rock and classical elements works like never before on this CD. Everyone I have played this to loves it ( not always a good sign ). Georgous melodies, superb playing and a wide range of styles keeps you entertained and challenged throughout. Comparisons are hard to find ( NEAL SCHON, JOHNNY A,PHIL KEAGGY)and only serve to suggest the flavour rather than the style of this unique musical experience. It gets better with every listen.Pity MATSUMOTO's other releases arn't available outside japan.

Here is a guitarist who serves up melody on a silver platter. I know some people will complain that this is a bit smooth, but you won't find a better listen in instrumental rock if you like SONGS, not mindless jamming ... . He has great feel, great tone, real good technique and is very inspired. Pick this up if you like players like Tim Pierce, Steve Lukather, Larry Carlton and Jeff Beck. Nice stuff.

Tak Matsumoto is a talented Japanese guitarist who is known for his pop rock band the B'z. His solo disc shows much more diversity, running from jazz, movie tunes, and Japanese modern electric folk, if that is even a category (it is now!). The diversity of sounds is impressive as well, using acoustic and electronic percussion, and even string sections and traditional Japanese instruments. It is hard to compare him to any one western musician, but possibly Ireland's Gary Moore, for his lyrical sense and singing tone. Tak plays for the song, showing restraint and taste. A treat for the ears, highly recommended.

Let me start off by saying that I'm a college kid with an acoustic guitar. You know, the type that denounces instrumental guitar albums every chance I get. But, after hearing about Japanese virtuoso Tak Matsumoto's "Hana," I decided that I should check it out. I hated it upon first listen and in it went to the bottom of my CD stack. Boy what a mistake I made. Today, "Hana" is one of my favorite albums. Don't let categories and labels get you. Good music is good music, period. In Matsumoto, we have a true guitar treasure. His Les Paul can deliver stinging blues-rock leads (Midousuji Blue, Little Wing) and imitate the moaning, gorgeous sound of an Erhu (#1099 Asian Sun, Koi Uta). His nylon-string sings the way I wish vocalists could (Hana). He even gives our ears some silky-smooth jazz for good measure (2011). It's amazing how classy this album is. No pyrotechnics, no histrionics, just an uncommonly transcendent musicianship. Matsumoto's melodies are lyrical and his technique perfect. And even though the rhythm sections can sound a bit bland at times, this is not a "guitar" album. This is true music in every sense of the word, made by a man who has completely mastered his instrument. The guitar really is his voice. I've checked out his band, the legendary B'z, and he was never allowed to branch out musically the way he does here. I guess it's good to know that even a player of Matsumoto's skill had to go solo in order to showcase what he's really capable of. Don't expect seven strings and whammy bar mania, folks. Just expect to hear the music of a virtuoso who doesn't need those things to tell a story and pull at his listeners' heart strings.

Tak Matsumoto, the only Asian guitarist to date that owns two signature Les Paul Gibsons, is also song-writer and guitarist of B'z, Japan's best-selling rock band to date. They have been around for 15 years and is hailed as an evergreen band.HANA features more of the musician and song-writer side of Tak. Koi Uta and Hana, both songs boast beautiful Oriental melody. Who would have guessed that electric guitar and er-hu (ancient Chinese instrumental) combines so well! You would be charmed by Tak's choice of melody and his improvisation skill in all songs. Besides Koi Uta and Hana, I also love #1090, Midosuji Blue, Romeo & Juliet, Engaged and 2011.For more rocking Tak though, I would recommend any B'z works like Brotherhood or Eleven. The guitar playing is simply MAD!

Tak Matsumoto is very well known in Japan as half of the extremely succesful duo B'z, whose string of hit singles since the late 80s is numerically pretty much beyond comparison to any Western alternative rock/hard rock/pop band. Although he's almost unknown outside of Japan, Tak Matsumoto's experience writing hit singles has ensured he's not one of those unknown guitar virtuosos who pops up in the West without much understanding of songwriting beyond fitting a certain number of notes into a bar or wielding a number of techniques per song.Though this is far from the first or only of Matsumoto's solo albums, this one appears to be the only one readily available to most Westerners. Steve Vai's Favored Nations label is responsible for much of the Western availability of Hana, and Vai himself aided the production of the album on a couple of tracks adding a draw to the legions of dedicated Vai fans who will follow his name anywhere. Hana (which means "Flower") starts off with a very defined and, I'm betting, deliberate Japanese tinge to the music that meanders through beautiful passages that almost make you forget there's even a guitar in the mix, but as the tracks go on the niche fades away and we're left with more Western sounding instrumental rock ballads (I'm sure the fact the album's 5 tracks titled in Japanese are all in the first half of the tracklist is deliberate) allowing for comparisons (however loose) to other guitarists who excel on slower tracks; Steve Vai, Brett Garsed, Stevie Ray Vaughan or Andy Timmons not being completely irrelevant comparisons, but Matsumoto sticks to slow ballad-like instrumentals here, allowing his control of his instrument's subtleties to sing the melodies in a frequently almost vocal style. The choice of Hendrix cover in Little Wing (here adapted to an instrumental) gives a useful guide to the second half of the album's feel and atmosphere. As for the first half, it's all about incorporating the electric guitar into new compositions that sound, at least to a Westerner like me, like traditional Japanese music. In my humble opinion, it's a beautiful sound and an artistic triumph.One downside is that with B'z Matsumoto is in a habit of often programming drums in preference to having them recorded. This habit appears to creep in on one or two tracks, though in fairness most of the album either has very little emphasis on percussion at all or an actual drummer so the ocassional absence of a live drummer can easily slip by undetected. If you want to hear Matsumoto shred a lightning quick solo, you will probably have to buy a B'z album and wait for the all-too-brief solos contained within, but that doesn't detract from the fantastic album that is Hana.

This is a quality 5 star album.I was so pleased to discover Tak Matsumoto via Larry Carlton on the album "Take your pick".Since then I've been out shopping and this album really does shine.A subtle blend of jazzy blues and oriental harmonies.I could give you a track by track review but there's really no need- if you like guitar and harmony just go out and buy it.This stylish guitar man has a beautiful refreshing presentation - this album is rapidly moving up my all time favorite list.jp.

Tak Matsumoto-ein Name den ich nie zuvor gehört hatte. Ein Video auf dem Musiksender Onyx weckte mein Interesse.Dieses Video ist übrigens in voller Länge als Bonus auf der CD enthalten.Ich bin froh, dieses Schätzchen gekauft zu haben.Schon der erste Track "Koi Uta" ist eine klassische japanische Melodien gespielt auf der E-Gitarre. Es ist Musik, die Bilder im Kopf entstehen lässt, einen ins Träumen bringt.Gänsehaut-Musik eben. Stellenweise erinnert sein Stil, die Gitarre zu spielen sogar einwenig an Mark Knopfler, besonders beim 6. Track "Blue" .Aufgefallen ist mir noch, das Matsumoto bei Track 8 "Romeo und Juliett" eine Melodie zitiert, die mir bekannt vorkommt? Ist es aus einem Film oder eine Klassische Melodie?Die Tracks 8-10 haben mittelalterliche, europäische Anklänge.Alles in allem nicht anspruchsvoll aber schön zu hören, abends bei einem schönen Glas Rotwein, einem gemütlichen Abend mit dem Partner oder einfach so, um die Alltag mal 50 Minuten draussen zu lassen.

Tak Matsumoto spielt so sauber Gitarre das es schon unheimlich ist - und zeigt auf Hana das er sowohl die traditionelle wie auc h moderne Musik auf seiner Les Paul umzusetzen weiß.Oft sind in den Lieder unverkennbar die Asiatischen Einflüße zu erkennen, eine schöne Abwechslung zum altbekannten.Auch sind bluesige und jazzige Songs enthalten.Allerdings sind in mehreren Songs Synthie Drumloops enthalten die ,vor allem Little Wing, überhaupt nicht gut tuen.Little Wing ist von der Gitarre her sehr stark an die original Hendrix (live) Version angelehnt allerdings passen meiner Meinung nach die Drums überhaupt nicht dazu.

恋歌という曲が素晴らしいです！strings of my soulのアルバムにもアレンジされたのが入ってます！ちなみにstrings of my soulという曲も美しいです！大好きです。B'zのアルバム7th bluesやHOUSE of stringsの中に入ってます！