Home » Jazz Articles » Sumi Tonooka
Jazz Articles about Sumi Tonooka
Alchemy Sound Project: Afrika Love
by Jerome Wilson
The group Alchemy Sound Project is the result of five accomplished composers and bandleaders pooling their resources. The five are saxophonists Salim Washington and Erica Lindsay, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, pianist Sumi Tonooka and bassist David Arend. Each one contributes a composition to this, their third release together. The result is a varied set of complex and restless modern jazz, arranged to showcase the playing talents of the group's members. Arend's “The Fountain" is a jangling group collage which ...
read moreAlchemy Sound Project: Afrika Love
by Troy Dostert
Confirming the many advantages of a regular working ensemble, the Alchemy Sound Project came together in 2014 to provide an additional venue of exploration for several members of the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute in Los Angeles. Although the group possesses an affinity for fusing classical composition techniques with expansive improvisation, what stands out on Afrika Love, the collective's third release, is its undisguised love of the jazz tradition. With a three-horn core of trumpeter Samantha Boshnack and multi-instrumentalists ...
read moreSumi Tonooka: Now - Solo Live at the Howland Cultural Center
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ascoltando Sumi Tonooka in questo intenso concerto in piano solo, ci si interroga per quali ragioni jazzisti di tale valore restino ampiamente sottovalutati e in gran parte sconosciuti. Sumi ha 56 anni ed ha già svolto quelle esperienze che potevano darle notorietà. Nata a Filadelfia, dopo aver studiato pianoforte con Margaret Chaloff (la madre di Serge) e poi con Mary Lou Williams ha debuttato su disco con Marcus Belgrave, collaborando poi con Sonny Fortune ed i fratelli Eubanks. Nel 1990 ...
read moreSumi Tonooka: NOW: Solo Live at the Howland Cultural Center
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
There are some jazz players who suffer an unusually large gap between their credentials and their renown. Pianist Sumi Tonooka is a case in point. She studied with Mary Lou Williams, made her recording début with Detroit trumpeter Marcus Belgrave (of Motown/Tribe Records fame), and was part of Philly Joe Jones's band. Two especially strong albums--Long Ago Today (Artists Recording Collective, 2008) and Initiation (Artists Recording Collective, 2010, with saxophonist Erica Lindsay)--exhibited a distinctive Williams-like piano style, with strong original ...
read moreSumi Tonooka: Now
by Dan McClenaghan
Sumi Tonooka is a resourceful jazz pianist who, along with alto saxophonist Chris Burnett and tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, started the Artists Recording Collective, offering up Initiation (2010), an excellent quartet outing which Tonooka co-led with Lindsay, and a more intimate Tonooka-led trio effort, Long Ago Today (2008). A former student of piano legend Mary Lou Williams and an alum of drummer Philly Joe Jones' band, the pianist knows how to work in an ensemble. But going it alone is ...
read moreErica Lindsay / Sumi Tonooka: Initiation
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Long Ago Today (Artists Recording Collective, 2008), pianist Sumi Tonooka's previous release, generated two immediate reactions. First, it seemed astonishing that so singular, strong and distinctive a player could have been flying beneath the radar for so long. Second, the rhythm section--Tonooka, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Bob Braye--played with an unusual empathy that held the promise of ever-richer future collaborations; sadly, such hopes were dashed when Braye died in 2007, after Long Ago Today was recorded.For both ...
read moreSumi Tonooka: Long Ago Today
by David Adler
Players as acclaimed as Uri Caine speak highly of their fellow Philadelphian, pianist Sumi Tonooka, who deserves a far wider hearing but works at her own pace. Long Ago Today, her first leader date in 10 years and her fifth since 1990, is accurately titled in the sense that it was recorded back in 2004. Sadly, drummer Bob Braye died in the interim. But thanks in no small part to him, the music from this trio session pulses with life. ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 3
