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Joe Baione: Vibe Check
by Kyle Simpler
Some albums take time to grow on you, while others hook you from the first play. Vibraphonist Joe Baione's Vibe Check falls into the latter category. Backed by a stellar band featuring Duane Eubanks on trumpet, Toru Dodo on piano, Marco Panascia on bass, and Jerome Jennings on drums, along with Baione's daughter Alexis Baione guesting on vocals, Vibe Check captures a unique blend of modern creativity and nostalgic charm, balancing a cool sixties aesthetic with contemporary sensibilities. With this ...
Continue ReadingSomi: Zenzile: The Reimagination Of Miriam Makeba
by Angelo Leonardi
Il legame musicale e simbolico con l'Africa resta centrale nella produzione artistica di Somi, la vocalist e cantautrice statunitense dai genitori africani giunta al successo con gli album The Lagos Music Saloon e Holy Room. Il suo nuovo progetto è dedicato a Miriam Makeba, che avrebbe compiuto 90 anni il 4 marzo, data di pubblicazione del presente album. I brani in scaletta, tutti presi dallo storico repertorio della cantante, sono condivisi col musical Dreaming Zenzile, che Somi ...
Continue ReadingToru Dodo: Do You Like Cappuccino?
by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Listeners who look to a musician's collegiate trajectory for elucidation on his craft may find themselves at a loss, but Toru Dodo's biography gives us something to work with right away. Prior to studying at Berklee College of Music, Dodo attended Meiji University in Tokyo, where he got a degree in Economics. His intellectual preparation seems to inform his work as a pianist in an unexpected way: Dodo has a gift for clean, sparse arrangements that never sound bloated, and ...
Continue ReadingPianist Toru Dodo and Trio at Cleopatra's Needle, NYC
by AAJ Staff
Toru Dodo Cleopatra's Needle New York, New York October 26, 2008
Japanese pianist Toru Dodo and his trio are the featured act on Sunday nights at Cleopatra's Needle, 92nd and Broadway, New York City. Dodo plays a full set, then hosts the Sunday night jam. His trio usually has bassist Joseph Lapore, but on this occasion there was a new face on bass, Yoshi Waki, along with regular drummer Rodney Green. Dodo has a ...
Continue ReadingToru Dodo: Dodo 3
by Woodrow Wilkins
There seems to be an unshakable perception that jazz is only for old people. Accordingly, many people believe that the only jazz musicians are either old or dead. Every once in a while an artist comes along and contradicts that sort of thinking. Toru Dodo, a native of Tokyo, Japan, is a composer, pianist and arranger who began playing classical music at the age of four. A 1995 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he moved ...
Continue ReadingToru Dodo: Tokyo Storm Warning
by Jason Crane
On the new episode of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane interviews Japanese pianist Toru Dodo. Born in Tokyo, Dodo started playing piano at age 4, then gave up his dream of concert piano for the economics department at Tokyo's Meiji University. He found jazz at Meiji, and eventually came to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music. Since moving to New York City in 1998, Dodo has released three CDs and performed with Kenny Garret, Benny Golson, ...
Continue ReadingToru Dodo: Dodo 3
by Budd Kopman
Based on the notes of this very engrossing release, Toru Dodo has a quirky sense of humor and would get a good laugh out of Dave Barry's book, Dave Barry Does Japan. His latest recording, Dodo 3, is so full of life, happiness, humor, fine compositions and just plain good playing as to set it apart from run-of-the-mill piano trio records. Since the tunes are predominantly originals (except for Cedar Walton's “Bolivia," “My Romance," by Richard Rodgers, ...
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