Jazz Articles about Eri Yamamoto

About Eri Yamamoto

Album Review

Chad Fowler / Eri Yamamoto: Polkadots & Moonbeams

Read "Polkadots & Moonbeams" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 29, 2026

Some of the finest duo recordings give the listener the sensation of eavesdropping on an intimate encounter. The recordings of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans come to mind, as does the music of Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Polkadots & Moonbeams, by pianist Eri Yamamoto and saxophonist Chad Fowler, creates that same feeling. Although recorded in a studio, the performance sounds as though it might have been captured for the musicians themselves, an unguarded conversation between two artists listening closely ...

Album Review

Steve Hirsh: Root Causes

Read "Root Causes" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 28, 2025

Although Steve Hirsh's name appears on the masthead of Root Causes, you might not immediately recognize it as a drummer-led recording. Unlike the unmistakable leadership of Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, and Tony Williams, Hirsh leads with subtlety, functioning more as a selfless, responsive collaborator than a dominant force. The album features a classic piano trio format, with pianist Eri Yamamoto and bassist William Parker rounding out the ensemble. This trio forms three-quarters of the Sparks Quartet, led by ...

Radio & Podcasts

Eri Yamamoto, Janel Leppin and More

by Jerome Wilson
March 8, 2023

This show features several active female jazz musicians such as Eri Yamamoto, Janel Leppin, and Claudia Acuna. It also includes Michael Sarian, Tyshawn Sorey, and Jesse Davis. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Barry Altschul's 3Dom Factor “Long Tall Sunshine" from Long Tall Sunshine (Not Two) 00:57 The Sandole Brothers “Wings Over Persia" from The Sandole Brothers & Guests ...

Album Review

Eri Yamamoto Trio: A Woman With A Purple Wig

Read "A Woman With A Purple Wig" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
January 14, 2023

Pianist Eri Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan. but she has been a resident of New York City for over twenty years. She was there in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the world and then-President Trump began to call the disease a “Chinese flu." One day, while waiting to start an outdoor concert, she was confronted by a stranger who knocked off her hat, stepped on the electric keyboard she was carrying and called her one of the ...

Album Review

Steve Hirsh: Sparks

by Mark Corroto
June 28, 2022

Listeners are inclined to classify music into categories. There's trad jazz, bebop, hard bop, post bop, avant-garde, free jazz, third stream, free improvisation, fusion, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, pigeonholes are for the birds. One might agree after listening to Sparks by Eri Yamamoto, Chad Fowler, William Parker, and Steve Hirsh. The quartet characterizes this two disc set of feel good (actually, extra feel good) music as “spontaneous folk music." This in not ...

Album Review

Eri Yamamoto, Choral Chameleon: Goshu Ondo Suite

Read "Goshu Ondo Suite" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 1, 2022

La pianista e compositrice Eri Yamamoto, quarantotto anni all'epoca dell'incisione in oggetto (novembre 2018), equamente divisi fra il nativo Giappone (Osaka) e l'adottiva New York, persegue in questo ambizioso lavoro un'ideale compenetrazione fra universo jazzistico, classico e popolare. Non si tratta di un'operazione particolarmente nuova (in più di un frangente il tono ricorda per esempio lo storico It's Time di Max Roach, anno di grazia 1962), ma ciò che conta sono sempre i risultati, che nello specifico sono senz'altro apprezzabili. ...

Album Review

William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World

Read "Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 13, 2022

If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projects—one dating back ten years—with some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to “all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...