Tokyo (Live) by Kenji Lee’s Fortune Teller Trio
The Fortune Teller Trio (Kenji Lee, Andy Peck, and Jonathan Barahal) has spent more than half a decade refining a rigorous and demanding sound grounded not only in the American jazz tradition, but also in the broader canon of experimental and progressive music.
On Tokyo (Live), the Fortune Teller Trio is free to summon an ancient, undulating, mosaic chimera.
The music has been transmitted between continents, as if by primordial machinery: Barahal’s skittering, pattering, clanking percussion a sort of whispering pre-industry, Lee’s reedy growls equal parts static and signal, and Peck’s pops and plinks suturing together the rich emotional terrain. Each part is combined carefully into a barely-differentiated whole, with space left to emerge as a byproduct of register, dynamics, and density.
Across two nights in the Tokyo underground, The Fortune Teller Trio has encountered a knowledgeable and receptive audience for their music, well-equipped to confront the most devious and daring material that the band could conjure through improvisation.
- Brian Juarez
Tracklist
| 1. | Pachinko | 4:18 |
| 2. | Liver Juice | 4:28 |
| 3. | Never From Above | 2:35 |
| 4. | Frog In The Well (Todeslied) | 7:09 |
| 5. | Moshi Moshi | 1:51 |
| 6. | Salary Man | 7:26 |
| 7. | 40 | 1:53 |
| 8. | Ichion Jobutsu | 4:49 |
Credits
Kenji Lee - Tenor Saxophone
Andy Peck - 5 String Electric Upright Bass
Jonathan Barahal - Drums
Recorded live in Tokyo, Japan at Otooto and Asagaya Ten on November 28th and December 3rd, 2025.
Mixing and mastering by Benjamin Green in Detroit, Michigan.
Cyanotype artwork created by Kam Ogden. Liner notes by Brian Juarez.
kenjilee.net
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Kenji Lee is a Japanese-American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser based in Michigan. His work seeks to embody the vitality of experimentalism while staying diligently rooted in historical practices.