Miho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits

Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music.

Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band, following such luminaries as Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely. She conducted saxophonist and composer Marius Neset and the DRBB's excellent Tributes (ACT, 2020). Soon afterwards the pandemic kicked in. But Hazama's rise has continued to be the jazz equivalent of meteoric.

And deservedly so. Hazama is a breath of fresh air in big band jazz. (Gard Nilssen and his Supersonic Orchestra is another, though Nilssen's ensemble would be more accurately described not as a breath but a howling gale). Hazama is arguably the composer and arranger who has most successfully integrated strings into jazz orchestras, rather than treating them as bolt-on extras. The lineup on Beyond Orbits is 13 strong, including two violins, a viola and a cello. It is most assuredly not a nonet + string quartet. Hazama's technical advantage over previous generations of big-band composers is that her integration of strings, reeds and brass has been aided by digital recording and mixdown technology, which can, for instance, put a violin on a decibel footing equal to that of a trumpet without upsetting the apple cart.

Like the M_Unit albums that came before it, Beyond Orbits is an exhilarating, nuanced affair, rich in unexpected instrumental combinations. The arrangements allow generous space for soloists and among those enjoying it are trumpeter Jonathan Powell, alto and soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson, tenor saxophonists Jason Rigby and Jeremy Powell, baritone saxophonist Andrew Gutauskas, viola player Atsuki Yoshida, vibraphonist James Shipp, pianist Billy Test and drummer Jake Goldbas. There are two guest soloists, bassist Christian McBride and alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, each featured on one track apiece.

Hazama's only weakness is that she does not compose memorable melodies. Instead, she writes brief motifs which are then developed texturally and harmonically with the ensemble. The result is fascinating to listen to, but even after playing the album three times, none of the themes stick in the mind.

Another niggle is the soloists. So careful are they to blend into Hazama's intricate charts that they are sometimes overly clinical. This is rammed home after the event by Immanuel Wilkins' romping solo on the closing track, "From Life Comes Beauty." Hamaza says she asked Wilkins to guest because she was so taken with his "emotional" style. His solo is indeed passionate, a quality lacking in almost all the solos that precede it, however fleet and enthusiastic they might be.