Haruka Kikuchi grew up in Tokyo: a big city girl with a background in classical music. Yoshitaka “Z2” Tsuji is from Osaka; his mother started teaching him piano when he was five years old. Haruka came to traditional jazz though a music teacher—Z2 says he was hit by a bolt of lightning when he first heard Oscar Peterson. Their studies and enthusiasm brought them both to New Orleans separately, but soon they found each other and have since created a lif...