Takuya Nakamura at Jazz Café: Jazz, Jungle and Joy
The musician put on a mesmerising performance for the London crowd.
Having first seen Takuya Nakamura in a small café in Deptford playing Japanese folk and jazz, his set at Jazz Cafe felt like a completely different artist. Louder, denser, and full of club energy, it was a fusion of jazz and jungle that blurred the line between live performance and electronic set.
Born in Tokyo and based in New York, Nakamura — a former student of George Russell and collaborator with Quincy Jones and David Byrne — has long moved between jazz and experimental electronic scenes. Much of his recent work is with Tokio Station, a collective fusing early ‘90s jungle with jazz improvisation to create immersive, ever-changing performances. Jazz and jungle are historically linked too: jazz provided rhythmic and brass foundations that jungle later sampled, making Nakamura’s set feel like a living bridge between eras.
Backed by Currency Audio on drums, Nakamura moved constantly between his decks, MIDI keyboards, synthesisers and a live vocal processor. His trumpet appeared only in short, cheeky bursts, teasing the standing crowd before disappearing back into loops and textures. Through these trumpet moments, you could really sense Nakamura’s playful humour. The heavily improvised set shifted unpredictably between jazz riffs, electronic breakdowns and jungle rhythms, yet through it all Nakamura looked like he was having the best time: grinning, bouncing and feeding off the audience’s energy.
Operating somewhere between bandleader, producer and musician, Nakamura’s performance felt alive and immediate. The crowd moved with him, caught in the momentum of the music; a reminder that he’s not just blending genres, he’s actively reshaping them, keeping jazz improvisation vital in contemporary electronic spaces.
All photos by Katie Riley.
