Reiko Yamamoto: The Square Pyramid
Reiko Yamamoto’s The Square Pyramid is a jazz record built around her vivid and precise vibraphone sound. With excitement heightened by the targeted force and agility of four mallets striking and bouncing on the metal bars, the crystal clear and warmly sustained sounds of Yamamoto’s instrument pull the listener into the heart of the colorful structure through her compelling compositions.
Written in Japanese, Reiko Yamamoto’s name is 山本玲子. Reiko (玲子) contains the kanji character 玲 which represents the sound of jewels and is used in several aural words invoking tinkling and chiming sounds. Whether or not that character had a direct influence on the musician’s life, it’s an appropriately fitting context for her masterful playing of this brilliantly translucent instrument.
All of the songs are by the group leader Yamamoto, whose musical ideas are let loose on the nine tracks’ creative arrangements and solos. The music is typically modern sounding with mostly straight-eight rhythms adorned with interesting meters, melodic placements, and musical structures.
Joining Yamamoto is her “Square Pyramid” quartet (distinguished from her previous two “Tempus Fugit” swing/bop quartet albums) featuring Sumire Kuribayashi on piano, Keisuke Furuki on bass, and Hiro Kimura on drums.
The flow of the album is like a three-act storytelling arc, with thrilling action in acts one and three and calm respites in the middle. The opening is all excitement delivered through the propulsion of heart-racing notes on #1 “Vibrant Line” and #2 “Midnight Blue”.
Next, the mellow #3 “Staring at the Rain” and the melancholic #4 “Missing Piece” are both pretty creations placed to introduce different moods and moments of peaceful reflection.
Nestled in the middle of the album is a set of three conceptually linked tracks: #5 “Piano Songs No. 2”, #6 “Piano Songs No. 3”, and #7 “Short Stories No. 5”.
These three songs examine more sides of the tinkling gem (or faces of the pyramid) and showcase compositional traces of classical, progressive, folk, rock, and mystery, with a lyrical touch resembling a poetic, possibly Jethro Tull-ish, personality.
Incidentally, more numbers from the Piano Songs and Short Stories series appear on Yamamoto’s other musical projects and albums including Sumireiko, Yamako, Jazz Resort, and Magnolia (coming up in future articles here).
The last two tracks, #8 “Black Forest” and #9 “That Blue Bird” seem to blend into each other and share some musical traits, (not to mention the background that these two tracks share, explained in the liner notes), confidently bringing the album to a close for a theatrical conclusion.
Liner Notes
(Translated from Reiko Yamamoto’s original Japanese liner notes.)
Vibrant Line
This is a song originally written for a vibraphone ensemble. The word vibrant has the same etymological root as vibrate, which is also the origin of the name of the instrument vibraphone. In addition to the meanings of vibrating and trembling, it also includes the meanings of being active and energetic. I chose this title hoping to make you feel the music’s dynamics from the percussive approach and the reverberation of the vibraphone.
Midnight Blue
It’s characteristic for instrumentalists to frequently travel by car, especially on the roads at night. This song portrays going down the Metropolitan Expressway in the dead of night… Imagine driving with the feeling of sprinting. In actuality, the color of my current car is called midnight blue, which is where I got the name of this song.
Staring At The Rain
This song’s title “Staring at the Rain” depicts a house in Europe with a woman inside, sitting by the window, resting her chin on her hands, and looking out at the gloomy rain outside. I wrote this song while imagining that scene. It was a rainy day when I wrote this song, and I didn’t want to go outside, but if I didn’t go out I wouldn’t get things done… I was wavering. In that mood, I gazed at the rain and imagined what this European woman would be feeling while staring at the rain.
Missing Piece
For a jigsaw puzzle with even just one piece missing, it cannot be said to be completed. I gave this song this title to express the instability of those times when something is lost, as with this melody that seems to be headed to a resolution somewhere but ends up being unsettled.
Piano Songs No. 2
Subtitled “Kiseki” (trajectory, the path one has taken). In 2017 I went to see Gary Burton’s last concert before his retirement, playing in a duo with pianist Makoto Ozone. Ozone’s piano at that time was extremely lovely, but also very heartbreaking… I wished at the time that it could never end. This is a song of a pianist who follows closely their mentor’s life trajectory.
Piano Songs No. 3
I usually compose with the sound of the piano, so sometimes the resulting songs will be closer to the image of a piano playing style rather than melodies played on a vibraphone. The Piano Songs series is a collection of such songs. Around the time I wrote No. 3, I was listening to a lot of European pianists like Enrico Pieranunzi and Michel Petrucciani, so this song was influenced by that period.
Short Stories No. 5
This is a song I wrote while playing Short Stories on vibraphone. Short Stories is a collection of short pieces for solo vibraphone. This “No. 5” is based on something I improvised somehow or other while playing at home one day. I hope you can closely hear the vibraphone’s characteristic approach of having such a resonant sound combined with its limited pitch range and number of chord voices that can be played simultaneously.
Black Forest
After listening to the next song “That Blue Bird”, an artist imagined the moment that song was born and created a painting for me entitled “Black Forest”. The painting shows a pitch-black forest with a large reflecting lake, glowing beautifully with moonlight and glittering with the surfacing of fragments of musical phrases. From this, I set that title to music, which resulted in this song’s creation.
That Blue Bird
The story “Blue Bird” describes how Tyltyl and Mytyl travel on a long journey searching for a blue bird and concludes with them finding that blue bird, which then flies away and ends the story. We may realize that happiness is always close to us but, just like the blue bird that flies away, can also disappear in a flash. Although I named this song after a story with quite a philosophical significance, this “Blue Bird”, at least for me, has brought a lot of happiness.
Obi Notes
A new page in the history of jazz vibraphone sound.
The long-awaited all-originals release from the new band debut.
Reiko Yamamoto has released two albums with “Reiko Yamamoto Tempus Fugit” (Terasima Records), participated in genre-crossing collaborations, and has become known for the endless possibilities of her vibraphone sound. She now releases a full album of her original compositions fully unleashing her well-established compositional and arrangement techniques. Throughout jazz history from swing to hard bop, fusion, and contemporary genres, the vibraphone has produced many songs and has been incorporated into many bands as a novel instrument. Here again, a new part of this history will be recorded.
The Square Pyramid by Reiko Yamamoto
Reiko Yamamoto - vibraphone
Sumire Kuribayashi - piano
Keisuke Furuki - bass
Hiro Kimura - drums
Released in 2019 on Somethin' Cool as SCOL-1032.
Japanese names: Reiko Yamamoto 山本玲子 (Yamamoto Reiko) Sumire Kuribayashi 栗林すみれ (Kuribayashi Sumire) Keisuke Furuki 古木佳祐 (Furuki Keisuke) Hiro Kimura 木村紘 (Kimura Hiro) Reiko Yamamoto: The Square Pyramid 山本玲子「スクウェア・ピラミッド」
Audio and Video
Excerpt from “Vibrant Line”, track #1 on this album: