Yuko Miyawaki: Song of Flower
Japanese jazz musician Yuko Miyawaki’s debut album Song of Flower from 2011 brims with understated calm, burning steadily through original, mellow sounds and sparkling improvisation. Miyawaki’s trumpet and flugelhorn centers her core jazz quartet, adding a fifth member on tenor sax to embellish her jazz themes with sweet harmonies and cutting solos on four tracks.
In addition to her compelling horn playing, Miyawaki’s contributions also include original songs and arrangements, all showing a creative style with modern themes calmly developing over sharp grooves with fascinating frameworks. The selected cover songs include a great modern jazz version of the Japanese folk song “Sakura”, the atmospheric latin tune “El Choclo”, “Summer Night” in uptempo swing, and a tender duo with guest pianist Junichiro Ohkuchi (joining on five songs) on the heartful ballad “I’m Glad There Is You”.
Song of Flower by Yuko Miyawaki
Yuko Miyawaki - trumpet, flugelhorn
Yutaka Handa - tenor sax
Taeko Kurita - piano
Yutaka Kaido - bass
Masashi Tomikawa - drums
Junichiro Ohkuchi - piano (tr. #3, 5, 6, 8, 9)
Released in 2011 on Coume Music as DQC-614.
Japanese names: Yuko Miyawaki 宮脇裕子 Yutaka Handa 伴田裕 Taeko Kurita 栗田妙子 Yutaka Kaido カイドーユタカ Masashi Tomikawa 冨川政嗣 Junichiro Ohkuchi 大口純一郎
Audio and Video
Excerpt from "Sakura", the first track on this album: