Featuring
- Mwata Bowden - reeds
- Francis Wong - soprano sax
- Jonathan Chen - violin
- Hide Yoshihashi - taiko drums
- Amy Homma - taiko drums
- Melody Takata - taiko drums
- Tatsu Aoki - bass
Tracklisting
"As the audience attests on this live
recording, Miyumi's amalgam of
cultures and creative spirit speaks
the worldwide language of joy."
- Lauren Deutsch,
Executive Director,Jazz Institute of Chicago
Recorded Live June 27, 2007 at MALTA Festival, Poznan, Poland
- NOW 19:23 [ from Origins of Now ]
- Episode One 14:48 [ from re:ROOTED ]
- Episode Four 20:14
- Lacquer 13:02 [ from re:ROOTED ]
All Compositions Created by Tatsu Aoki,
SSD PUBLISHING CO / ASCAP 2008
Southport Records S-SSD 0125
ASIN:
Album Description, Editorial Review
LINER NOTES
What struck me immediately on my first trip to Poland was that it was not all black and white and gray, as I had imagined it would be.
That trip took m to five cities where I saw beautiful baroque churches, smoky underground music clubs,
massive stone castles and young people wearing the latest fashions from Paris.
And everywhere I went, people seemed hungry to hear the creative improvised music we call jazz.
I came home with a different perspective, as one often does after getting some distance from what we take for granted.
Why do Polish people seem to have such an affinity for jazz? Despite its scarcity during the Soviet era, plenty of people would find recordings, make copies and pass them along to friends through an underground network before the Internet made that a simple thing. This was, I learned, a nation that understood very well that the essence of jazz is the idea of freedom, in particular, the freedom for an individual to express ideas. For a country that had long struggled to maintain its cultural identity, it seemed to me that Polish people have a very deep well to draw upon when it comes to the language of jazz.
I met a kindred spirit on that trip - Wojciech Juszczak - who it turned out, loved not only jazz but especially the music coming out of Chicago. In turn I introduced him to another kindred spirit.Tatsu Aoki, whose boundary-breaking musical sensibility resonated with Mr. Juszczak's. He invited Aoki to Poland the first chance he got. And then invited him to bring the full contingent of his Miyumi Project comrades to perform at the Malta Festival in Poznan the following year.
I wasn't there for the Malta concert, but Wojciech called me on the phone, worried because the weather was not only unseasonably cold for July, but also raining, and he was afraid that people
wouldn't come to the outdoor concert. I advised him not to worry.it wasn't a rock concert.people who love this music are passionate, and weather (at least in Chicago, in my experience) doesn't seem to dampen their desire.
There were about ten people there fifteen minutes before the concert started.
And fifteen minutes later there were eight hundred.
The only thunder they heard were Taiko drums speaking the universal language of the heartbeat.
They saw not storms, but the graceful arcs of wooden sticks moving as if in one breath by master drummers Amy Homma, Melody Takata and Hide Yoshihashi. Tatsu Aoki's steady bass line anchoring the dual flights of Mwata Bowden's searing baritone chasing Francis Wong's taunting soprano. Jonathan Chen's violin scolding and cajoling like an eccentric exotic bird.
All of them in the NOW.
I've had the pleasure and the honor of watching and listening to this diverse group of musicians
evolve over the past seven years; having commissioned Tatsu Aoki's Rooted: Origins of Now in 2001 and re:Rooted in 2006 through the Jazz Institute of Chicago. His conceptual framework is about exploring the nexus of cultures; Asian and American, Chinese, Japanese and African, past and present. His compositions provide a construct of ideas for each individual musician
to interpret, and each successive grouping of Miyumi musicians have contributed new understandings of the fundamental nature of the work.
The dynamics of the group on this recording speak eloquently of the many times they have come together from across the continent and now across the sea to make music together. Mwata Bowden and Francis Wong have an astonishing sensitivity to each other, and obvious enjoyment
when they have the chance to perform together. Melody Takata leads both by the elegance and grace of her statements and by giving ample room to the extraordinary young duo of Amy Homma and Hide Yoshihashi, who have taken the ancient art of Taiko drumming into a new realm. Originally from Chicago, Jonathan Chen has been living in Germany and was able to rejoin the group for the concert in Poland. His juxtapositions of the warm sound of the violin with pulsing electronics pushes Miyumi's sound even further into the future. And fittingly, at the base of it all, are Aoki's bass lines; shimmeringly transparent at times, densely textured at others and always in the groove.
As the audience attests on this live recording, Miyumi's amalgam of cultures and creative spirit speaks the worldwide language of joy.
Lauren Deutsch March 5, 2008
Executive Director, Jazz Institute of Chicago
Artistic Producer: Tatsu Aoki
Executive Producer: Bradley Parker-Sparrow
International Producers: Miho Satoh & Wojciech Juszczak, Estrada Poznanska
Project Producers: Joanie Pallatto & Bradley Parker-Sparrow
Recording & Mixing Engineers: Eryk Kozlowski & Kasia Palicka
Mastering Engineer: Bradley Parker-Sparrow
Digital Editing and Additional Recording: Ryo Otsuka
Design: Al Brandtner
Photography:
Cover Photo Inside Tray: Lauren Deutsch
Tatsu Aoki portrait: Marcin Dondajewski
Outside tray: Piotr Dyba
Mastered at Sparrow Sound Design Recording Studio, Chicago, Illinois (2/15/08)
REAL JAZZ MADE IN CHICAGO
A SOUTHPORT AND ASIAN IMPROV WORLD RELEASE
Similar Albums
You may also be interested in the following albums:
re: ROOTED
The Miyumi Project (06)
Rooted Origins of Now
The Miyumi Project Big Band (01)
The Miyumi Project (00)
Basser Live II
Tatsu Aoki (05)
Back to Tatsu's Discography
