1 	Blues for Bandit	5:19
2 	Funky Girl	5:15
3 	When Johnny Comes Marching Home	5:54
4 	How Deep is Your Love	5:10
5 	Give Me the Simple Life	5:13
6 	Spanish Flea	4:40
7 	It's Easy to Remember	6:15
8 	L-O-V-E	6:12
9 	Don't Misunderstand	6:10
10 	Commencement	6:54

Drums – Jeff Hamilton
Electric Organ [Hammond B3 Organ], Producer – AKIKO
Guitar – John Hart 

You know, it’s been ten years since Akiko Tsuruga have released her brilliant debut recording, and since then this Queen Of The Organ have made absolutely tremendous progress in her magnificent music career that have resulted in many world tours and seven highly acclaimed albums under her belt including this one. Released in 2014 to glowing reviews, Commencement is another time-honoured addition to the great jazz organist’s ever growing prolific music career as it again showcases a masterful performance as she is gracefully joined by ace drummer Hamilton and John Hart on guitar, in which they create a magical and captivating masterpiece. By starting off on the opening track Blues For Bandit, the fantastic track set proceed with supercharged skill on ‘new’ original compositions, such as like Funky Girl, Don’t Misunderstood and the title track, as well as another round of direct takes on classic standards like The Bee Gees’ How Deep Is Your Love, Give Me The Simple Life, It’s Easy To Remember and Nat King Cole’s romantic ballad L-O-V-E, which Akiko and the trio performs gracefully with preppy results. So with Commencement, Akiko have again displayed her world class artistry on the Hammond B-3 Organ where she uses her powerhouse B-3 organ stylings to significant effect that results in stellar performing, great taste and an impeccable sense of swing, which gives an extra amount of ears to remind ourselves of just how far this great master of the jazz organ had come and to everything we have come to love about the jazz organ tradition, which makes this a timeless classic. ---RH, amazon.com

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01. Come On-A My House (1:57)
02. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter (2:26)
03. Relax Max (2:42)
04. What A Little Moonlight Can Do (3:11)
05. Fools Fall In Love (2:46)
06. Rum And Coca Cola (3:09)
07. I'm Walkin' (2:35)
08. Exactly Like You (2:30)
09. Blues No.8 (4:04)
10. Sh-Boom (2:27)
11. Mr. Sandman (2:30)
12. I've Got You Under My Skin (3:50)
13. Goody Goody (4:16)

Akiko - vocals
with 
Gentle Forest Jazz Band
Blue Moon Quartet 
feat. Gentle Forest Sisters
Chai-Chii Sisters
Fats & Fats

Jazz singer Akiko has a brand new album out now, of rockin', jivin' and swingin' songs (as the title says!) from the 40's and 50's. Featured musicians include Gentle Forest Jazz Band, Blue Moon Quartet, Fats & Fats, and also female chorus groups Chai-Chii Sisters and Gentle Forest Sisters.

Tokyo born Akiko started playing piano at age of 4. She started to listen to rock / punk music, when she was a junior high school student, & then began to take her interest in various kinds of music, including 70s disco music, 60s oldies, 50s rock + country and western. Above all those music, she was especially inspired by old black music like jive, jump blues & doo wop. At age of 18, she happened to listen to Sarah Vaughan & Ella Fitzgerald thus, discovering jazz. Afterward, she started to sing as a professional at Jazz Club in Tokyo, when she was a university student.

In the year 2001, Akiko became the first Japanese jazz singer to sign with the renowned jazz label, Verve Records. She recorded her first album "Girl Talk" (2001) in France with the famous French producer, Henri Renaud, released in June the same year.

She was initially famous for her repertoire of over 500 standard jazz songs, but also for her flexibility towards different genres, always molding in new styles for each album she releases. Other than in Japan, she has recorded in Paris, London, New York, Rio De Janeiro, and Oslo.

In previous albums, she has worked with producers such as Swing Out Sister, Tatsuo Sunaga, Yasuharu Konishi (of Pizzicato Five), Bugge Wesseltoft (of Jazzland), et al. At the same time, she has participated as guest vocalist for artists in different genres such as [re:jazz], Hajime Yoshizawa, Studio Apartment, Quasimode, and more.

Through these many collaborations, she has met with various artists, musicians, and producers from many different genres. In 2009, she released a tribute album for "London Nite", a famous rock party in Tokyo, which she has loved since she was in her teens. As an adviser for the album, she invited Kensho Onuki, the man who brought "London Nite" to life, and through the album, she showed her roots in music is actually in rock and not jazz.

Not only a singer, she is also known and praised for her ability as a producer, writing and arranging songs, and also direction for all artwork on her albums. ---discogs.com

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