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Sumi Tonooka: NOW: Solo Live at the Howland Cultural Center
ByThis lack of renown seems not to trouble Tonooka however, whose attention is focused on crafting music of especial depth. NOW finds the pianist in concert at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, New York, performing a solo piano set. The program is broadly autobiographical, with the first disc honoring Williams' influences, from Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk, and the second made up of selections from her own impressive songbook.
A long "Mary Lou Williams Medley" occupies the emotional and musical center of gravity of the first discof the whole album, arguably. The medley begins with a deliberate and faithful version of saxophonist John Stubblefield's "Baby Man" (especially redolent of two performances by Williams on her excellent live Free Spirits (Steeplechase, 1975)). Williams' own "Waltz Boogie" and "Dirge Blues" follow "Baby Man." Meanwhile, Monk's "Evidence," brightly played, is another tour de force.
The second disc traverses Tonooka's biography, with episodes of travel to Africa ("Sojourn 1 and Uganda") and high points of her discography. "Mingus Mood," a standout track on Initiation thanks to Lindsay's saxophone and Reid's bass, sounds, if anything, better as solo piano, and neatly echoes the Williams medley from the first disc.
A playful rendition of Eubie Blake's "I'm Confessin' That I Love You" concludes. Somehow, the encorelike the entire discmanages to embrace a century of jazz piano while sounding as contemporary as the record's title: NOW, indeed.
Track Listing
CD1: I Hear A Rhapsody; Heaven; I'm Old Fashioned; Mary Lou Williams Medley (Baby Man/Waltz Boogie/Dirge Blues); Evidence; All of You. CD2: Phantom Carousel; Soujourn 1 and Uganda; Moroccan Daze; Mingus Mood; At Home; I'm Confessin'.
Personnel
Sumi Tonooka
pianoSumi Tonooka: piano.
Album information
Title: NOW: Solo Live at the Howland Cultural Center | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: ARC - Artists Recording Collective
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