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Jazz Articles about Mamiko Watanabe
Eugenie Jones: Eugenie
by Richard J Salvucci
Eugenie Jones seems to be another one of those singers who did not start out as one but got there as soon as she could. Make no mistake, she ended up in the right profession, self-confessedly in the tradition of Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln. Jones writes as well, and several of her own songs, “Starlight Starbright," “Hold Back the Night," “It's OK," “Nothing Better" and “Say What You Will" round out a recording of a selection of classics by ...
Continue ReadingEric Frazier: That Place
by Richard J Salvucci
Eric Frazier has been at it a long time, the better part of a quarter century. He started out as a public school teacher and administrator in New York City, and became a conga drummer out of his interest in African music. He has, as the saying goes, been around, played at venues like The Knitting Factory and worked with people like Pharoah Sanders and Jack McDuff. This is not his first CD by any means, and some reviews of ...
Continue ReadingMamiko Watanabe, Melissa Aldana, Matt Wilson, James Zollar and more
by Hobart Taylor
New music from pianist Mamiko Watanabe's Guided by the Light, saxophonist Melissa Aldana's Echoes of the Inner Prophet, Matt Wilson's Good Trouble and James Zollar'sThe Ways In. Playlist Isrea Butler “Congo Lament" from Congo Lament (Vegas Records) 0:00 Rachel Gould “Send Smoke Signals “ from Where Have I Been All of Your Life (WJ3) 5:38 Host Speaks 10:28 Larry Goldings & John Sneider “ In Walked Bud" from Chinwag (Sticky Mack) 11:45 Idit Shner & Mhondoro “Ngatibatanei" from ...
Continue ReadingSanti Debriano & Arkestra Bembe: Ashanti
by Jack Bowers
Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements. The result is Ashanti, an impressive studio recording whose framework is jazz but whose heart and soul are clearly in bembe. ...
Continue ReadingMamiko Watanabe at Fat Cat's, NYC
by Greg Henry Waters
Mamiko Watanabe Fat Cat Club New York City, New YorkNovember 7, 2007 Mamiko Watanabe is a wonderful jazz pianist, who is simply fun to watch in performance. She is a little woman--probably no more than 98 pounds but certainly 98 pounds of dynamite! It was Lyn Christie, a string bassist who once performed with Chick Corea, to whom I owe a phrase “not afraid to be original. Mamiko is such a person. She ...
Continue ReadingMamiko Watanabe: One After Another
by Terrell Kent Holmes
With the release of One After Another, add Mamiko Watanabe to the list of talented jazz pianists that have come out of Japan in recent years. Watanabe composed all of the songs on this impressive debut and they show a strong, fully developed hard bop sensibility. Watanabe's composing MO is to start off a song with a strong theme or head, as a sort of attention-grabbing mechanism, then to pull it back to where it becomes an exploratory vehicle for ...
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