TAKUYA KURODA | Scena MONK

A story straight out of a film.

2003. A 23-year-old trumpeter from Kobe, Japan, lands in New York with no English, no connections - just a one-way ticket and an instrument case. The only place where he communicates without barriers is the nightly jam sessions at Brooklyn's Up Over Jazz Café. Kuroda decides to master the language he knows best and enrolls at the prestigious The New School - under the mentorship of Laurie Frink.

He's been playing trumpet since age 12, but on his first lesson, stress makes him stumble through a simple C major scale. Frink hands him sheets with the most basic long-tone exercises - material for 12-year-olds - and tells him to practice every day for a month. Raised in Japanese work culture, Kuroda listens and humbly rebuilds his technique from scratch. Methodically, step by step, every single day.

23 years later, he has 8 studio albums to his name, including a debut released by Blue Note Records. He's coming to Scena MONK with his latest - Everyday (2025). "The foundation of this record is groove," Kuroda says. The title is both a retrospective look at the ethos of his own career and a simple message for those seeking the secret to starting out: "The only way to create the music I want to create is hard work, every day."

Check it out if you like: Isaiah Sharkey, Błoto, New Jazz Underground, Robert Glasper
Listen to Everyday: https://open.spotify.com/album/7MGQ30eNUS8DqLKQdH2zTi?si=RQDH-3NAS9-UN-ap2b9FVA