Nanami Haruta was born in Sapporo, Japan, and started playing piano at just three years old.

By the age of eight, she’d moved over to trombone and quickly became somewhat of a child star on the instrument, winning local competitions and giving concerts. Moving to Tokyo in 2020, she continued her meteoric rise, contributing to the local jazz and avant-garde scenes.

Now enrolled on the jazz studies program at Michigan State University, she has collaborated with a few MSU professors (trombonist Michael Dease, bassist Rodney Whitaker, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., keyboardist Xavier Davis and producer/composer Greg Hill) on impressive new album The Vibe inspired by the uplifting sounds of ‘50s/’60s bluesy hard-bop, Blakey, Coltrane and Silver-style, whilst also focusing on contemporary compositions in that ballpark.

But the main thing elevating The Vibe above the usual is the surfeit of memorable melodies (a rebuttal to a recent episode of The Jazz Bastard podcast decrying their lack in contemporary jazz), even if their power is a little diluted by the album’s long running time.

On Christian McBride’s mid-tempo swinger ‘Sister Rosa’, Haruta takes a superb solo, playing straight sixteenths with odd rhythmic accents, while on the elegant waltz ‘Girlie’s World’, written by Renee Rosnes, the whole ensemble crackles and pops.

The title track, written by Hill, is a burner, while bassist Whitaker superbly outlines the melody and adds a fine solo on ‘How It Goes’. There’s even a closing cover of ‘Unchained Melody’, elegantly arranged for trombone, bass and electric guitar, with Haruta craftily and unpredictably soloing expansively over the middle-eight chords.

In the May 2025 issue of DownBeat, Haruta names her biggest influences as Curtis Fuller, Phineas Newborn Jr. and Art Blakey, and she is certainly adding to their formidable reputation with The Vibe. Jazz is now a truly international language. Looking forward to hearing future projects.