Kayo Hiraki: I Wish You Love (2011)

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: June 30, 2011

Track review of "Ceora"

Japanese pianist Kayo Hiraki is in search of her audience. She has self-released a smart set of standards in the trio format that is garnering attention from all quarters of the jazz writing world. A ballad specialist, to be sure, Hiraki resists the modern impulse to deconstruct, keeping the tunes intact and in congress with the composers' intentions.

To have been composed by a horn player, Lee Morgan's balladic "Ceora" translates well to the standard jazz piano trio format. Pianist Kayo Hiraki has a light-as-a-feather feel for the piece, presenting it in a straight-ahead fashion, eschewing Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver allusions in favor of her own dependable harmonic ear. Her approach is a light samba, kept mostly in Pat O'Leary's bass and Matthew Crawford's light Latin drumming. Hard bop never was so soft.

Personnel: Kayo Hiraki: piano, Pat O'Leary: bass; Matthew Crawford: drums.

Style: Classical