Yoko Miwa Trio have released their Live At Scullers Jazz Club CD to highlight the young jazz pianist. Live At Scullers Jazz Club is the fourth CD released by Miwa since she became a regular player in Boston’s jazz scene. Originally from Kobe, Japan, Miwa came to Boston in the 1990s to study at Berklee College Of Music.
Live At Scullers Jazz Club was recorded at a sold out show at Scullers in October of last year. The Yoko Miwa Trio open this live recording with their hip interpretation of Steve Allen’s “This Could Be The Start Of Something.” Miwa’s plays her piano notes with a loose, carefree feeling. That lovely wellspring of notes just pour forward with a gentle rush, fast but never heavy. Particularly snappy as she moves from one interval of notes to another, Miwa still infuses it all with an easy going grace.
Miwa’s trio consists of acoustic bass player Greg Loughman and drummer Scott Goulding. Loughman makes those bass notes tap dance around the syncopated beats of Goulding’s drumming. Hearing the two rhythm section players interact gives another insight into and appreciation of what Miwa’s music is made of. Brittle bass notes, bulbous bass notes, bass notes in between these extremes all account for the tonal quality of this CD. When Loughman plays his thicker, heavier notes, the contrast with Miwa’s elegant tinkling becomes yet another highlight.
Miwa’s original composition “Wheel Of Life” begins with a beautifully understated piano line before soon turning into a larger sound of cascading notes with her rhythm section joining in with their own lovely touches. Miwa has a way of keeping art, beauty, and emotion all perfectly contained in a peaceful expression of colors and tone. It is during these moments of understatement that the listener can truly feel what she was likely feeling when she was composing. “Wheel Of Life” eventually evolves into a circular feeling, with the dynamics and tempo briefly intensified. It’s like being a passenger in a ride with a driver who likes to shift gears and leave you at the edge of your seat wondering how it will all end. Likewise, the thrill of Miwa’s music is that feeling of movement and wondering where it will bring you.
Miwa’s left hand lower notes and chords are powerful expressions of the darkness in “Wheel Of Life.” You can actually feel her pushing the song in the direction she wants. There is true meaningfulness when she plays those chords and you can almost feel yourself hovering above them uncertain whether you want to plunge into the emotional abyss she leaves open.
Another original on here, “Mr. B.G.” features elements of Miwa’s bop and stride influences. Cool twists in her flow of notes sound like a conversation between both sides of middle C. Playing with a bounce in her step, Miwa’s music makes one envision the joy her Scullers Jazz Club audience must have been feeling when they were hearing this music being created before their very eyes in real time. Miwa’s drummer Scott Goulding applies some muscular sounds to “Mr. B.G.” Goulding’s drum pieces emit a round, fulsome tone and he is especially hip to those right moments to hit the skins, when the players need to strike their notes in one hearty, simultaneous plunk.
Miwa adds her rendition of a song originally written by Boston’s famous hard rock band Aerosmith. Miwa‘s “Seasons Of Wither” offers shades of the original version in her cascading mash of piano notes. That she is open to a reexamination of this genre is wonderful news. Music, as open-minded people have been saying for years, is a vast world of possibilities, not a nightmare landscape in which genres become like cages for people’s minds.
Miwa soon moves onto her own arrangement of Lou Reed’s “Who Loves The Sun,” complete with her special emotive tinkling, notes that range from soft and light to heavy and dark, all moving in and about at their own special pace to create the pianist’s vision for this re-imagining of Reed’s piece. Her aggressive strides make her piano a force to be reckoned with. Finding true depth in this Reed original, Miwa proves she is a miner for beautiful music wherever she finds it.
Miwa moves back into her own original territory with “Silent Promise.” The words “silent” and “promise” in her song title say a lot. This piece never gets loud in dynamics but it does deliver on the promise aspect. It is a powerful piece in its quiet application of the instruments. The tender feelings evoked in her opening melody speaks to the vulnerable side in all of us. Mr. Loughman applies some equally emotive quality with his gentle, easeful low end plucking. This peaceful song with its wide sweep of feeling conveys a largeness that usually comes with up tempos and louder dynamics. Yet, Miwa’s emotional depth is ever present in her piano work.
Art Farmer’s composition “Max Nix” receives a warm embrace by Miwa and her band mates. This one plays through with an exuberance of sparkling piano notes over feisty left hand chords. Miwa’s quicker notes shine with enthusiasm, as if this is her way of informing her audience how much she likes to play this piece. Drummer Scott Goulding comes in with his own adept way of pronouncing his presence with a wide sound in each drum piece during his appropriately extended solo. He gets so much energy moving around his kit that the effect is similar to hearing a full five piece band.
The Yoko Miwa Trio close out with soulful ebullience in their interpretation the of Milton Nascimento composition “A Festa.” Inflections from Latin American and the Mediterranean music from past decades emerge with direct conjuring. Miwa evokes an appreciation for these foreign flavors in her jazz and the departure from more American jazz and roots music makes an appropriate ending as she is inviting people from other musical cultures to make themselves at home in her music.
This is certainly a very enjoyable fourth CD from a very promising young jazz pianist.