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Kent Nishimura's guitar arrangement of Man in the Mirror by the great late Michael Jackson was a tribute, that on its own, stood its ground in this moment of musical history. The intricacies of this arrangement are beyond what a few paragraphs can describe, but a good short summary of it would be: unbelievable sense of time and groove, a keen and precise attention to detail, and absolute musical fluency with the acoustic guitar.

This arrangement begins with something spectacular already, with the intro featuring nail taps on the guitar top that create an incredible rim shot effect; paired with the harmonics that emphasize the strong high end melody. The verses and choruses demonstrate and incredible ability to only play the things that are true to the song. Ever bass drum effect made by the wrist and ever snare tap using the thumb are accurate representations of the groove and synergy of the original track. Kent's attention to detail in this arrangement is also immaculate in the way that he gets down to the smallest thing like planting his index on the D or G string for a split second to slightly mute the extra frequencies coming out of those strings.

Kent is a 19 year old boy whose potential is endless. He selects timeless songs that resonate with so many people and he's able to bring them to heights previously unimagined. A good quote to summarize his abilities would be one by the great Tommy Emmanuel: "Kent is by far the best musician I've heard in many years..."

Past Rank In

Man In The Mirror

iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Australia • TOP 1 • 19 Feb 2024 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Austria • TOP 1 • 23 Mar 2023 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • New Zealand • TOP 1 • 27 Oct 2022 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • United States • TOP 3 • 17 Feb 2024 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • United Kingdom • TOP 6 • 3 Dec 2022 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Japan • TOP 7 • 7 Jan 2023 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Canada • TOP 8 • 15 Mar 2023 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Germany • TOP 9 • 14 Feb 2023 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Philippines • TOP 12 • 27 Mar 2024 Apple Music • New Age Top Songs • Azerbaijan • TOP 16 • 29 Apr 2024 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Singapore • TOP 23 • 2 May 2024 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Hong Kong • TOP 24 • 7 Nov 2022 iTunes Store • New Age TOP SONGS • Thailand • TOP 26 • 5 Dec 2022 iTunes Store • All Categories TOP SONGS • Austria • TOP 70 • 23 Mar 2023

Past Playlist In

Man In The Mirror

Spotify • Peaceful Notes • 23 Sep 2022

Artist Profile

  • Kent Nishimura

    Born on March 1, 2003 in Osaka, Japan. At his age 5, Kent began to play (acoustic) guitar which was given as a Christmas gift, as he told his parents that he wants to get his own guitar.
 He sings with guitar for the first one year and his repertoire was Japanese rock and pops hit songs. At his age, he listen to an acoustic guitar instrumental tune by Kotaro Oshio and it changed Kent's life. 
 At the time, Kent actually declared to his family "I will go as an acoustic guitarist from now on!!", although Kent doesn't remember that at all. Watching Kotaro's videos on YouTube, he has been copying many original songs of Kotaro as perfectly which surprised Kotaro himself. 
 Kent was copying many repertoires by many foreign fingerstyle solo guitarists, such as Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour, and Tommy Emmanuel to name a few. At about the age of 10, people heard that there is a kid who can play acoustic solo guitar very well in Osaka and Kent was offered for many music events in the Osaka area. 

At the age 12, he released his debut album entitled "FIRST STEP" on an independent label in Kyoto, Slice of Life Records. 

Kotaro Oshio invited Kent as a special guest for his popular radio music program right after the album was out. April 2017, at the age of 14, Kent attended for the first time the National Fingerstyle guitar competition's final national tournament in Japan, the 17th annual FINGERPICKING DAY 2017, and won in the competition as the youngest grand champion in history. His first album FIRST STEP moved not only many pro's pro musicians such as Tommy Emmanuel and Andy McKee but George Lowden who is a legendary luthier of Lowden Guitars. Mr. Lowden built up a brand new guitar for Kent after he asked Kent about his favorite woods for the top, side, and back of the guitar. As a result, 6 months later, Kent got a Lowden F-35 with an inlay of the letter KENT on the 12 frets as a gift from Mr. Lowden. In May 2017, Kent released a second solo album entitled "2" with 13 songs of his original arrangements and 1 original composition "Desert Island". His solo guitar play on those original arrangements for fingerstyle guitar with no overdub surprised many pro musicians, music media, and (of course) music fans. In August 2017, Kent was invited to a dressing room of Tommy Emmanuel between his 1st and 2nd show. Kent asked Tommy to his guitar in the room and played his original arrangement of "Drive My Car", the Beatles' song from their "Rubber Soul" album. After he finished the song, Tommy requested him to play the song for his 2nd show. Tommy introduced Kent as a special guest at the end of the 2nd show and Kent played the song for the capacity audience that night. In September 2017, Al McKay invited Kent to a show his band AL McKAY ALLSTARS at a venue in Osaka. Kent brought his guitar with him to play a full version of "September" for him in his dressing room. He requested Kent to play the song at their encore. Kent did a very good job in a front of houseful audience. Trying to be compatible with study as a high school student and musical actions as an artist, he has been performing more than 2-hour solo concerts all over Japan.

    Artist page

    Kent Nishimuraの他のリリース

Slice of Life Records