Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Yoko Miwa Trio: Fadeless Flower

168

Yoko Miwa Trio: Fadeless Flower

Like so many jazz pianists, Yoko Miwa began her musical journey in classical music; and to jazz she brings the nuance, subtley and a forthright beauty engendered in her early studies. Miwa's right hand creates sparkling rivulets inside the rhythmic flow on songs like "In My Heart" and the disc's title tune, "Fadeless Flower," both compelling personal statements. The delicate lyricism of those tunes is balanced by the churning down-home groove on "Blues in the Cave," the gospel inflections of "Finding the Sun," and the pure impressionistic loveliness of "Love."

Miwa enjoys more than able accompaniment from bassist Greg Loughman and drummer Scott Goulding, who lay a vibrant rhythm down on a set of nine Miwa originals. The pianist has an engaging way of repeating a phrase, drawing the listener in before she lets the melodic flow go free again, telling stories full of concise and beautifully-rendered ideas.

"Black Bunny" hops along on a steady left hand groove and bouncing melody in front of a gently-propulsive rhythm anchoring a soaring solo, while the "Momentum" has Miwa floating on top of a relentless rhythmic texture.

The variety of styles Miwa commands, while maintaining a start-to-finish cohesion of sound on Fadeless Flower, is impressive. A gorgeous and unpretentious set of straight-ahead jazz.

Track Listing

Sorrowful Moon, Fadeless Flower, Blues in the Cave, In My Heart, Momentum, Flood of Tears, Black Bunny, Love, Finding the Sun

Personnel

Yoko Miwa--piano; Greg Loughman--bass; Scott Goulding--drums

Album information

Title: Fadeless Flower | Year Released: 2004

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




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.