New Horizon (Tak Matsumoto album)

New Horizon is the fifteenth solo studio album by Japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto, of B'z fame. It is an instrumental album (except for "Feel Like a Woman Tonite", with guest vocals by American singer Wendy Moten ) and it was released by Vermillion Records on April 30, 2014 in Japan. The album debuted at number 3 on both the Japanese Oricon weekly album chart and the Billboard Japan album chart.

Some tracks of the album are not new; the title track was featured in a series of commercials by Japanese transportation company Sagawa Express, "Black Jack" is a rerecorded version of the Black Jack Special theme song, and "Rain" had been already performed live during their 25th anniversary tour. The album also features three covers: "Take 5", which had already been covered in Matsumoto's debut solo album Thousand Wave, and two other tracks by Japanese musicians, the only tracks with Japanese-language titles.

Track listing
The American and European editions come with a slightly different track list (with "Take 5" as the opening track and the title track coming next) and the two Japanese-language titled tracks translated to English

Personnel

 * Tak Matsumoto – guitars on all tracks, arrangements

Session members

 * Wendy Moten – vocals on "Feel Like a Woman Tonite"
 * John Ferraro – drums
 * Lee Laing – drums, keyboards and wah guitar on "Feel Like a Woman Tonite"
 * Shane Gaalaas – drums on "Rain"
 * Lenny Castro – percussion on "Take 5"
 * Travis Carlton – bass on track 1, 6, 9, 10, 11
 * Bryant Siono – bass on "Feel Like a Woman Tonite"
 * Barry Sparks – bass on "Rain"
 * David Enos – wood bass on tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8
 * Akira Onozuka – electric piano on tracks 1, 4, 6; piano on tracks 5, 7, 8, 9; Wurlitzer on "Black Jack" and "Gakuseigai No Kissaten"; organ on "Rain"
 * Greg Vail – saxophone on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10; flute on tracks 2, 3, 7; tenor saxophone on "New Horizon" and "That's Cool"
 * Greg Adams – trumpet on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10
 * Lee Thornburg – trombone on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 10
 * Hiroko Ishikawa of Lime Ladies Orchestra – strings on tracks 5, 7, 8

Technical staff

 * Hideyuki Terachi – arrangement
 * Hiroyuki Kobayashi – recording; mixing on tracks 5, 8, 9, 11, 12; engineering
 * Paul Brown – recording and engineering on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10; mixing on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10; arrangement on "Feel Like a Woman Tonite"