It’s a group that knows how to lock in and lock it down... Kuroda is an artist who knows just where to place a note or start a run" -Downbeat “No one sounds like Takuya...His tone, warmth and most of all his storytelling have inspired me for years. His writing is soulful, modern, and effortlessly bridges the gap between jazz and soul, and between history and tomorrow." -José James Takuya Kuroda is an ascendant trumpeter and composer who is perhaps best known for his inspired presence in vocalist José James’ band over the past several years. Before Kuroda arrived in the U.S. in 2000, he grew up in Kobe, Japan and followed his older, trombone-playing brother’s footsteps by joining the junior high school jazz band. Kuroda eventually came to the U.S. where at the Berklee College of Music he had his first formal jazz studies. “I never had a jazz music teacher in Japan. I took my first music theory, ear training and jazz ensemble classes for the first time in my life in English, which made it even crazier," he says, “ But that made me want to come to New York." Since his arrival, the now Brooklyn-based Kuroda has been leading his own bands and has self-released and self-produced three previous albums: Bitter and High, Edge, and Six Aces which helped springboard his wildly successful 2015 Blue Note release, Rising Son. Kuroda is already an integral voice in the NYC afrobeat scene, and hopes to cement his reputation as an intrepid musical force with his new album from Concord Records arriving later this year.