Kobe-born, New York City-based trumpeter Takuya Kuroda is a gifted player who combines jazz, hip hop and contemporary soul with a fluency and ease that recalls the late Roy Hargrove. He first came to my attention back in 2014 when he released Rising Son, an assured debut album for Blue Note Records, which featured his long-time friend and collaborator José James. Fly Moon Die Soon started out as a set of homemade beats which Kuroda tinkered with in the studio before adding horn lines and inviting guest vocalists to sit in. His tunes are excellent, all visceral funk basslines, woozy synths and quirky electronic textures with killer hornlines, psychedelic glimmers and occasional alt rock accents. The opener, ‘Fade’, is one of several features for vocalist Corey King whose naïve style combined with the wonky production reminds me a bit of Thundercat. The instrumental ‘ABC’ is insanely funky with lightning fast horns and an Afrobeat flavour (a throwback to Kuroda's 2016 album Zigzagger). Alina Engibaryan adds mellow vocals to a hip hop cover of ‘Sweet Sticky Thing’ and there's also a satisfying rework of Herbie Hancock's ‘Tell Me A Bedtime Story’ with homespun beats and one of many soulful Kuroda solos.