Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Yuko Togami: Dawn

5

Yuko Togami: Dawn

Yuko Togami: Dawn
Drummer Yuko Togami's Dawn arrives as a beautiful surprise. It is the debut of the Japanese-born and now New York-based artist. Debut sets don't carry great expectations—one hopes for competence and a hint of a flair for the art form, the occasional creative spark shooting up from an otherwise acceptable but perhaps mediocre effort. For a newcomer to the scene, this would be a success. Yet Dawn rises up over the horizon with a bright glow that takes things well beyond the scope of the run-of-the-mill debut.

Togami's Dawn is a piano trio outing—one of the more difficult arenas to render distinctively—with keyboardist Takaaki Otomo's Fender Rhodes sitting in on one tune, and pianist Ben Paterson switching in on organ on another. The line-up shifts. Otomo and Paterson share the piano duties; Jakob Dreyer and Nori Naraoka shuffle in and out on bass. And yet a start-to-finish cohesion and a focus of vision pervades.

The Togami-penned "Noctiluca" opens the set. A pensive and inward tune that would fit well into a Bill Evans set, featuring Otomo's delicate keyboard touch and Jacob Dryer's big, warm bass sound—and an almost subliminal-but-elevating percussion contribution (in the beginning; the energy builds) from the leader. It's a melody that has a classic feeling to it, that veers into a quirky wandering segment that shifts back into introspective loveliness.

"Got To Get There," another Togami tune, features Otomo's Fender Rhodes in a sort of light-stepping funk, and "Why Not?" prances with an appealing insouciance, Ben Paterson's piano dancing inside a rock solid rhythm.

"Firstbornes," a group improvisation, rambles into an amiable gallop before fading away.

George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy," the first of three covers, has never sounded more beautiful. Delivered with supreme patience, it is a spare examination of the classic melody that can stand with most any version of the song you can find. Takaaki Otomo is as emotive as a pianist can be here.

"Stolen Moments," Oliver Nelson's opening cut on his classic album Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse! Records, 1961), doesn't seem like a vehicle for an organ trio sound. Ben Paterson makes it so with a muscular B3 breeze punctuated by Togami's sharp percussion and a deeply swinging groove.

The solemn "Autumn Path"—on which Togami takes the piano chair—closes the disc on a thoughtful, reverent note, for a fine conclusion to surprisingly fine debut.

Track Listing

Noctiluca; Got to Be There; Why Not; Firstborns; I Loves You, Porgy; Stolen Moments; Chan's Song (Never Said); Autumn Path.

Personnel

Album information

Title: Dawn | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Yuko Togami Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante
All In Motion
Dave Redmond
Cat & The Hounds
Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine...

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.