Sherrie Maricle & The Diva Jazz Orchestra - TNT: A Tommy Newsom Tribute

Styles: Big Band

Year: 2005

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 64:14

Size: 147,5 MB

Art: Front

(4:22)  1. Titter Pipes

(6:43)  2. Pensativa

(7:55)  3. Three Shades Of Blue

(4:56)  4. Moonlight (What A Little Moonlight Can Do)

(9:03) 5. Nat Cole Medley (Mona Lisa/Nature Boy/Straighten Up & Fly Right/Route 66)

(5:31)  6. Too Late Now

(6:20)  7. Trail Mix (On The Trail/Surrey With The Fringe On Top)

(6:32)  8. Remember Medley (Remember/I Remember You)

(7:19)  9. Come Sunday

(5:27) 10. Red Door

TNT is the fifth album by the explosive New York-based all-female DIVA Jazz Orchestra, blending a contemporary mainstream big band sound with a progressive flavor. Founded by a former relief drummer for the Buddy Rich Big Band, Stanley Kay, the fifteen piece big band has been under the direction of bandleader/drummer Dr. Sherrie Maricle for the last several years. Whether in the studio or in concert, the group has drawn critical acclaim for its play. This record is a tribute to composer/arranger Tommy Newsom, who provided all of the arrangements and two original charts. "Titter Pipes," the opening swinging number, highlights a chase between Scheila Gonzalez on tenor sax and Karolina Strassmayer on alto. The other Newsom chart is "Three Shades of Blue," a slow and bluesy piece. Of the other pieces on the album, Claire Fischer's "Pensativa" is one of the most delicious. Strassmayer shows her range with a flute solo, followed by a moving run on the piano by Chihiro Yamanaka, backed up by bassist Noriko Ueda. Anat Cohen takes center stage on clarinet with the Billie Holiday favorite "Moonlight," played in a New Orleans/Dixieland style.

The "Nat Cole Medley" is a cleverly crafted musical collage of melodies and harmonies with a playful version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right" that finds the band on vocals. Barbara Larangona provides one memorable performance with her emotional flugelhorn solo on the slow and mellow "Too Late Now." I did not particularly care for the heavy trombone statements in the beginning of "Trail Mix," which is mostly a matter of taste. Scheila Gonzalez delivers a passion-filled baritone sax solo on "Remember Medley." The finale, "Red Door," is another swinging number that simmers with a torrid pace and features Maricle's powerful drumming. In appraising the album I would give an "F" for the color selection in the liner notes, whose lack of contrast makes for difficult reading. Musically, this is an exciting, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable CD that warrants a grade of "F" for many things: (F)ine arrangements by Newsom, superbly interpreted by the (F)abulous musicianship of a (F)irst-class all-(F)emale extraordinary big band that plays with (F)inesse, (F)reshness, and (F)ire.By Edward Blanco https://www.allaboutjazz.com/tnt-a-tommy-newsom-tribute-sherrie-maricle-lightyear-entertainment-review-by-edward-blanco.php

Personnel: Sherrie Maricle: drums; Chihiro Yamanaka: piano; Noriko Ueda: bass; Karolina Srassmayer, Leigh Pilzer, Anat Cohen, Scheila Gonzalez, Lisa Parrot: saxophone; Leisi Whitaker, Barbara Larangona, Tanya Darby, Jamie Dauber: trumpet; Deborah Weisz, Jen Krupa, Leslie Havens: trombone.

TNT: A Tommy Newsom Tribute

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Chihiro Yamanaka - After Hours 2

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:27
Size: 122,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:35) 1. Fly Me To The Moon
(4:03) 2. Wakey, Wakey
(4:09) 3. Drift Apart
(4:11) 4. Just One Of Those Things
(4:52) 5. Georgia On My Mind
(5:05) 6. I'll Close My Eyes
(4:08) 7. Moanin'
(4:09) 8. Beautiful Love
(6:14) 9. Skating In Central Park
(6:07) 10. Autumn Leaves
(5:48) 11. I Didn't Know What Time It Was

Chihiro Yamanaka, Universal Music/Blue Note recording artist, is one of the most exciting jazz pianists and composers of her generation, and the leader of the Chihiro Yamanaka Trio. The new Chihiro Yamanaka CD, Somethin' Blue, is her Blue Note Records debut.

Chihiro has been a Universal Music/Verve recording artist since 2005, the same year in which she was named Swing Journal’s “Best New Artist." On the occasion of Universal's recent acquisition of Blue Note Records in time for Blue Note’s 75th anniversary Chihiro made the move to Blue Note. As a newly minted Blue Note artist, she has been a big part of the 75th anniversary celebrations, including a concert at the Blue Note Tokyo in which she performed with all-stars including bassist Ron Carter.

Chihiro, who most often performs and records in trio format, assembled a sextet for the Somethin' Blue sessions and created a new compositional universe that places this 2014 album in the lineage of classic Blue Note recordings. Her impressive technical mastery of the piano combines with her improvisational command to make her a member of the pantheon of great pianists who have recorded for Blue Note throughout its history.

Chihiro’s music pivots between her strikingly original compositions and her unique arrangements in which she accomplishes the impressive feat of introducing the element of surprise into some of the most famous songs in the jazz repertoire, contemporary popular music, and even the works of classical composers.

On Chihiro's 2013 CD, Molto Cantabile, she lovingly fractures classical gems, including one that has become a staple of her live shows, Beethoven's "Für Elise," which is exposed to an improbable series of kaleidoscopic variations which could withstand the involvement of knuckles and which let loose a torrent of effects that could lead the listener to wonder whether it's the music of Beethoven or of Thelonious Monk. As this unusual music unfolds, one could easily imagine both Beethoven and Monk looking on with astonishment and, ultimately, complete approval.

Chihiro took this concept in a different direction with her Beatles tribute, the 2012 CD Because, a groundbreaking disc that features some of the most creative reworkings of Beatles classics ever recorded. Along with the title track, “Because” (from Abbey Road), Chihiro transforms such great songs as “Yesterday” and “Michelle” into glittering vistas of her musical imagination.

Chihiro does all of her studio recording in New York City, working with some of the greatest talent in jazz. Her recordings have featured prominent artists such as Jaleel Shaw, Ben Williams, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard, Kendrick Scott, Gene Jackson, Vicente Archer, Robert Hurst, Yasushi Nakamura, Yoshi Waki, John Davis and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie.

Chihiro performs regularly on three continents. In New York City, Chihiro’s home base, her latest appearance was a spectacular March, 2015 concert with her trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she played to a sellout crowd. Her New York appearances in recent years have also included Iridium Jazz Club, the Blue Note and Carnegie Hall.

Chihiro is active on the west coast (with repeat appearances at Yoshi’s San Francisco, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, and Dizzy's in San Diego), in Boston (Café 939, Regattabar), where her popularity is influenced by her status as a Berklee graduate, and in the Washington/Baltimore area (Blues Alley, Kennedy Center, An die Musik, Warner Theater). Among the highlights was her concert that opened the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, a set that was selected for broadcast on National Public Radio's "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater."

In Japan, Chihiro performs to sellout audiences at large venues across the country, and all of her Universal CDs have topped the Japanese jazz charts. As a classical pianist, she has performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue with major symphony orchestras. She has become a multimedia celebrity in Japan, hosting her own radio show, making TV appearances, and authoring a book, The Landscape With Jazz.

Europe is fertile ground for Chihiro’s tours, which have included the Umbria Jazz Festival, Bologna Jazz Festival, Sunset-Sunside in Paris, Blue Note Milan, A-Trane in Berlin, the major venues and festivals in Rome including Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Roma Jazz Festival and Alexanderplatz, and a recent weeklong engagement at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland.

Keeping pace with Chihiro’s whirlwind touring schedule is her prolific international recording career with Universal Music and Blue Note Records. In the past three years she has had six CD releases. Besides Somethin' Blue, Molto Cantabile and Because, they include After Hours 2, the U.S. release of Reminiscence, and a compilation, My Favorite Blue Note, on which Chihiro served as producer and contributed original music. In the same period Chihiro and Universal also have released an EP, Still Working, and two DVDs, Live In New York, videotaped at Iridium Jazz Club, and Live at Blue Note Tokyo. A Chihiro Yamanaka DVD gives her fans the opportunity to experience on video the spectacular visual presentation that has been seen by anyone who has witnessed the fireball of energy and virtuosity on display at a live Chihiro concert appearance.

Chihiro has received numerous awards, including Jazz Japan’s “Album of the Year” and the Japan Gold Disc Award for best-selling jazz record of the year, along with acknowledgments from critics, fans and musicians for her recordings and live performances. Jazz Life Magazine called Chihiro “one of the greatest jazz talents in decades,” and the late George Russell hailed her as “a very gifted and imaginative musician.”

In JazzTimes Magazine, Giovanni Russonello wrote an enthusiastic review of Chihiro's set at the 2011 Umbria Jazz Festival, opening for Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Marcus Miller. “Opening for the Tribute to Miles band with her trio, the Japanese pianist tore into two originals at the top of her set…When she announced ‘Take Five,’ the crowd let out a gleeful 'ahh' but they weren’t ready for the voracious reharmonization, full of upward-creeping bass lines and chromatic descents, or her mid-song interpolation of 'In Your Own Sweet Way,' retrofitted in 5/4 time. Right and left, jaws were dropping."Chihiro Yamanaka, Universal Music/Blue Note recording artist, is one of the most exciting jazz pianists and composers of her generation, and the leader of the Chihiro Yamanaka Trio. The new Chihiro Yamanaka CD, Somethin' Blue, is her Blue Note Records debut.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/chihiro-yamanaka/

Personnel: Chihiro Yamanaka - piano; Avi Rothbard - guitar; Yasushi Nakamura - bass; Yoshi Waki - bass

After Hours 2

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Lach Doch Mal

Styles: Piano Jazz 
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:18
Size: 124,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:01)  1. Quand Biron Voulut Danser
(3:58)  2. Sabot
(5:41)  3. Serenade To A Cuckoo
(3:54)  4. RTG
(4:25)  5. The Dolphin
(2:51)  6. Night Loop
(4:14)  7. One Step Up
(0:45)  8. Lach Doch Mal
(5:35)  9. Liebesleid
(4:54) 10. Mode To John
(7:06) 11. What A Diff'rence A Day Made
(5:49) 12. That's All

Chihiro Yamanaka is an internationally renowned, hard-swinging jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, whose fluid, athletic technique has drawn rave reviews and very favorable comparisons to legends such as Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. She is based in New York. Yamanaka was born in Kiryu, in Japan's Gunma Prefecture, in 1976. At age four she began formal piano studies. While she began with classical music and still practices it, she shifted her focus to jazz studies in high school. After graduation she attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston as part of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency program. She played with a wide range of musicians in Boston and in New York before heading back home to Japan after she graduated from Berklee in 2000 with honors and took first place in Down Beat's Outstanding Performance Award competition.Temporarily returning to Japan, she began her recording career there in 2001 with Living Without Friday, the first of four annually released titles issued by the Japanese label Atelier Sawano. Nonetheless, Yamanaka's long-player gained notice immediately from critics and radio stations. Her 2002 follow-up, When October Goes, hit the top rungs of the Japanese jazz charts, and word began to spread among fans and critics across the Pacific back to America. Yamanaka had reached the level where she could tour not only in her home country but also Europe and select U.S. dates. During this time she was also a member of DIVA, the all-female big band led by drummer Sherrie Maricle. Yamanaka also performed with the DIVA spin-off quintet Five Play, who backed Marlene VerPlanck on her 2003 album It's How You Play the Game, all while continuing to tour and release her own recordings.

In 2005 she signed a worldwide deal with Universal's Classics and Jazz division and issued her North American debut with the trio effort Outside by the Swing, recorded in New York City with drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts and bassist Robert Hurst. Yamanaka immigrated to the States and issued the audio-video package Lach Doch Mal in 2006 with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard. While neither record made the jazz charts in the States, they reached the Top Five in Japan and upped the pianist's reputation to the degree that she became a global nomad, touring in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Arriving in 2007, Abyss was her first recording to feature drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Vicente Archer, who became her working trio. She broke the trio mold with 2009's Runnin' Wild, where her piano fronted a sextet. On 2010's Forever Begins, bassist Ben Williams replaced Archer in her trio. The following year saw the release of Reminiscence, which placed a live performance at the Iridium in New York with a studio album that featured Yamanaka in three different trio settings. In 2012 Yamanaka released the first of two tribute albums, Because, a loving nod to the Beatles on which she backed by a quartet played not only piano but synthesizer, organ, guitar, ukulele, and harmonica. 

Because was followed by the standards releases After Hours and After Hours 2. In 2013, she offered her tribute to classical music with Molto Cantabile. In 2014, Yamanaka moved from Verve to the Universal-owned Blue Note label just in time for its 75th anniversary. Her debut, Somethin' Blue, was a sextet offering, and in addition to originals offered striking renditions of Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco" and Herbie Hancock's "I Have a Dream." It reached into the Top Five on the jazz charts. She followed it the same year with Syncopation Hazard, her tribute to Scott Joplin. Yamanaka returned to the trio format for 2016's Blue Note-issued Guilty, which placed her original compositions alongside select pieces by Hoagy Carmichael. Near the end of 2017, Yamanaka produced and arranged Monk Studies. She played acoustic and electric piano, synth, and Hammond B-3 organ in an almost exclusively Monk program backed by drummer Deantoni Parks and bassist Mark Kelly. ~ Thom Jurek https://www.allmusic.com/artist/chihiro-yamanaka-mn0000283696/biography

Personnel: Chihiro Yamanaka(piano).

Lach Doch Mal

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Ballads

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2021
Time: 77:24
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 178,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:50) 1. For Heaven's Sake
(5:58) 2. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
(6:29) 3. Good Morning, Heartache
(2:13) 4. Danny Boy
(8:01) 5. This Masquerade
(4:39) 6. Old Folks
(6:42) 7. On The Shore
(3:10) 8. I Loves You, Porgy
(5:10) 9. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You
(2:38) 10. Ruby, My Dear
(5:10) 11. Dove
(6:21) 12. Caught In The Rain
(2:20) 13. I Can't Get Started
(4:32) 14. Orleans
(3:30) 15. Abide With Me
(5:35) 16. Thank You Baby

Chihiro Yamanaka, Universal Music/Blue Note recording artist, is one of the most exciting jazz pianists and composers of her generation, and the leader of the Chihiro Yamanaka Trio. The new Chihiro Yamanaka CD, Somethin' Blue, is her Blue Note Records debut.

Chihiro has been a Universal Music/Verve recording artist since 2005, the same year in which she was named Swing Journal’s “Best New Artist." On the occasion of Universal's recent acquisition of Blue Note Records in time for Blue Note’s 75th anniversary Chihiro made the move to Blue Note. As a newly minted Blue Note artist, she has been a big part of the 75th anniversary celebrations, including a concert at the Blue Note Tokyo in which she performed with all-stars including bassist Ron Carter.

Chihiro, who most often performs and records in trio format, assembled a sextet for the Somethin' Blue sessions and created a new compositional universe that places this 2014 album in the lineage of classic Blue Note recordings. Her impressive technical mastery of the piano combines with her improvisational command to make her a member of the pantheon of great pianists who have recorded for Blue Note throughout its history.

Chihiro’s music pivots between her strikingly original compositions and her unique arrangements in which she accomplishes the impressive feat of introducing the element of surprise into some of the most famous songs in the jazz repertoire, contemporary popular music, and even the works of classical composers.

On Chihiro's 2013 CD, Molto Cantabile, she lovingly fractures classical gems, including one that has become a staple of her live shows, Beethoven's "Für Elise," which is exposed to an improbable series of kaleidoscopic variations which could withstand the involvement of knuckles and which let loose a torrent of effects that could lead the listener to wonder whether it's the music of Beethoven or of Thelonious Monk. As this unusual music unfolds, one could easily imagine both Beethoven and Monk looking on with astonishment and, ultimately, complete approval.

Chihiro took this concept in a different direction with her Beatles tribute, the 2012 CD Because, a groundbreaking disc that features some of the most creative reworkings of Beatles classics ever recorded. Along with the title track, “Because” (from Abbey Road), Chihiro transforms such great songs as “Yesterday” and “Michelle” into glittering vistas of her musical imagination.

Chihiro does all of her studio recording in New York City, working with some of the greatest talent in jazz. Her recordings have featured prominent artists such as Jaleel Shaw, Ben Williams, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard, Kendrick Scott, Gene Jackson, Vicente Archer, Robert Hurst, Yasushi Nakamura, Yoshi Waki, John Davis and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie.

Chihiro performs regularly on three continents. In New York City, Chihiro’s home base, her latest appearance was a spectacular March, 2015 concert with her trio at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, where she played to a sellout crowd. Her New York appearances in recent years have also included Iridium Jazz Club, the Blue Note and Carnegie Hall.

Chihiro is active on the west coast (with repeat appearances at Yoshi’s San Francisco, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, and Dizzy's in San Diego), in Boston (Café 939, Regattabar), where her popularity is influenced by her status as a Berklee graduate, and in the Washington/Baltimore area (Blues Alley, Kennedy Center, An die Musik, Warner Theater). Among the highlights was her concert that opened the Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, a set that was selected for broadcast on National Public Radio's "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater."

In Japan, Chihiro performs to sellout audiences at large venues across the country, and all of her Universal CDs have topped the Japanese jazz charts. As a classical pianist, she has performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue with major symphony orchestras. She has become a multimedia celebrity in Japan, hosting her own radio show, making TV appearances, and authoring a book, The Landscape With Jazz.

Europe is fertile ground for Chihiro’s tours, which have included the Umbria Jazz Festival, Bologna Jazz Festival, Sunset-Sunside in Paris, Blue Note Milan, A-Trane in Berlin, the major venues and festivals in Rome including Auditorium Parco Della Musica, Roma Jazz Festival and Alexanderplatz, and a recent weeklong engagement at Marians Jazzroom in Bern, Switzerland.

Keeping pace with Chihiro’s whirlwind touring schedule is her prolific international recording career with Universal Music and Blue Note Records. In the past three years she has had six CD releases. Besides Somethin' Blue, Molto Cantabile and Because, they include After Hours 2, the U.S. release of Reminiscence, and a compilation, My Favorite Blue Note, on which Chihiro served as producer and contributed original music. In the same period Chihiro and Universal also have released an EP, Still Working, and two DVDs, Live In New York, videotaped at Iridium Jazz Club, and Live at Blue Note Tokyo. A Chihiro Yamanaka DVD gives her fans the opportunity to experience on video the spectacular visual presentation that has been seen by anyone who has witnessed the fireball of energy and virtuosity on display at a live Chihiro concert appearance.

Chihiro has received numerous awards, including Jazz Japan’s “Album of the Year” and the Japan Gold Disc Award for best-selling jazz record of the year, along with acknowledgments from critics, fans and musicians for her recordings and live performances. Jazz Life Magazine called Chihiro “one of the greatest jazz talents in decades,” and the late George Russell hailed her as “a very gifted and imaginative musician.”

In JazzTimes Magazine, Giovanni Russonello wrote an enthusiastic review of Chihiro's set at the 2011 Umbria Jazz Festival, opening for Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Marcus Miller. “Opening for the Tribute to Miles band with her trio, the Japanese pianist tore into two originals at the top of her set…When she announced ‘Take Five,’ the crowd let out a gleeful 'ahh' but they weren’t ready for the voracious reharmonization, full of upward-creeping bass lines and chromatic descents, or her mid-song interpolation of 'In Your Own Sweet Way,' retrofitted in 5/4 time. Right and left, jaws were dropping."
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/chihiro-yamanaka

Ballads

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Rosa

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:22
Size: 102,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:34)  1. My Favorite Things
(4:36)  2. Falling Grace
(5:16)  3. Piano Sonata No.8 Third Movement
(3:57)  4. Donna Lee
(4:41)  5. Old Folks
(4:14)  6. Rosa
(4:22)  7. Take Love Easy
(4:28)  8. Symphony No. 5
(5:16)  9. Yardbird Suite
(3:54) 10. Someday Somewhere

Chihiro Yamanaka is a jazz pianist but she is also a composer, arranger and producer. He is also head of the CHIHIRO YAMANAKA TRIO. Famous at home, it is also loved abroad especially in the United States and Europe. During his school years he studied at Municipal North Junior High School in Kiryu, Toho Girls' High School and later moved abroad, more precisely to England, to the Royal Academy of Music to finish in Boston at Berklee College of Music from which comes out with flying colors. Soon Chihiro's skills are noticed and he starts releasing records. The first to be released in 2001, "Living Without Friday", remains at the top of the modern jazz HMV chart for 4 weeks. In 2002 "When October Goes" was released, a record that received the award for best jazz album of the year from HMV. A year later the first "Leaning Forward" DVD went on sale. Followed by "Madrigal" in 2004, "Outside by the swing" in 2005 which achieved the first position both in the HMV jazz ranking but also in the Tower Record jazz ranking and is also the first album under Universal. In 2006 it was the turn of "Lach Doch Mal" which a year later was also released in Europe by the EMarcy label. Shortly after Chihiro is ready with the album "Abyss" which reaches the first position in several charts and wins the Japan Jazz Prize of the 41st Jazz Disc Award. Two months later the DVD "Live In Tokyo" was released.

Chihiro's fame is now remarkable, both in Japan and abroad, and his concerts are all sold out. The following album, "After Hours", received the 23rd Japan Gold Disc Award as the jazz disc of the year. Bravogue will follow in 2008, "Runnin 'Wild" in 2009 (tribute album to Benny Goodman, a famous jazz artist of the early 90s) "Forever Begins" in 2010 and "Reminescence" in 2011. The latter manages to enter the daily Oricon ranking at 10th position and it is also the first album that can be purchased in Italy. In 2013 he returned to perform in Italy, with two concerts on March 6 in Naples and the following day in Milan. https://www.jmusicitalia.com/chihiro-yamanaka/biografia/

Rosa

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Diva Jazz - A Swingin' Life

Styles: Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:46
Size: 127,7 MB
Art: Front

(4:53)  1. What The World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love
(6:32)  2. Nothin'
(5:03)  3. All My Tommorrows
(2:45)  4. All Of Me
(6:09)  5. The Very Thought Of You
(4:38)  6. Pennies From Heaven
(4:17)  7. Blues Medley [Goin' To Chicago Blues; Kansas City; Every Day I Have The Blues]
(5:15)  8. Blackberry Winter
(2:58)  9. Wonder Why
(6:38) 10. Nocturne #6 Opus 9, Number 2
(5:34) 11. Blues For Hamp

What do you get when you have fifteen talented and swinging female jazz musicians in an orchestral setting? The answer, drummer Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra offering A Swingin' Life as proof that hard-charging big band music is not the exclusivity of the male gender. Building upon the work of more than a dozen previous albums, DIVA presents music from the Great American Songbook and more, capturing eleven audacious tracks recorded live by Jazz at Lincoln Center at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola in New York and, at the renowned Manchester Craftsman's Guild in Pittsburgh.  Adding to the experience of these live performances are two very special guests, two giants of the business, two vocalists who have left their mark on the jazz world. Legendary singers Marlena Shaw and Nancy Wilson lend their vocal charm on five beautiful charts and while some are certainly swinging tracks for sure, there are a couple of ballads that take your breath away. Wilson takes the Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn standard "All My Tomorrows," to another level expressing heart-felt emotion as the band plays humbly. Vocalist Shaw lays down a warm and gentle performance delivering a fantastic interpretation of Alec Wilder's "Blackberry Winter" for the two soft spots of the album.  However, the limited tender material here is the exception and not the rule as the swinging times obviously carry the date. Opening up with a rousing rendition of Burt Bacharach's "What The World Need Now Is Love," the DIVA's announce their intentions with a full blast of the brass and reeds capped off by a solo from tenor saxophonist Janelle Reichman. 

Appearing once again as one of the main soloist, Reichman, this time on the clarinet, joins trumpeter Jami Dauber on the Stanley Kay piece "Nothin,'" another perky burner showcasing the band. On another of the few light tunes, Nadje Noordhuis on the flugelhorn is simply enchanting on the time-honored Ray Noble classic "The Very Thought of You" as Maricle is heard on the soft brushes making this number, one to remember. The group gets back to some hard-driving sounds on the swinging version of "Pennies from Heaven." Maricle and the girls get real bluesy on "Blues Medley," a fusion of "Going to Chicago Blues," "Kansas City," and "Every Day I have the Blues," featuring singer Shaw. 

The DIVAs show their powerful instrumental voices on the last three tunes showcasing their reach on "Wonder Why," "Nocturne #6 Opus 9, Number 2," and the Terry Gibbs arranged finale "Blues For Harp," demonstrating quite ably why this orchestra is regarded as one of the best jazz bands in the business. Kudos to Sherrie Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra as they roar through a splendid repertoire of big band jazz on A Swingin' Life, combining instrumental muscle with the elegant vocals in a live setting that is thankfully, documented well here. ~ Edward Blanco https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-swingin-life-diva-jazz-mcg-review-by-edward-blanco.php

Personnel: Sherrie Maricle: drums; Sharel Cassity: alto saxophone, flute; Karoline Strassmayer: alto saxophone (3, 4); Leigh Pilzer: alto saxophone, flute, baritone saxophone (3, 4); Kristy Norter: alto saxophone (3, 4); Janelle Reichman: clarinet, tenor saxophone (3, 4); Anat Cohen: clarinet, tenor saxophone (3, 4); Roxy Coss: tenor saxophone; Scheila Gonzalez: tenor saxophone (3, 4); Lisa Parrott: baritone saxophone; Tanya Darby: lead trumpet, Flugelhorn; Liesl Whitaker: lead trumpet (3, 4); Jami Dauber: trumpet , Flugelhorn; Barbara Laronga: trumpet (3, 4); Carol Morgan: trumpet, Flugelhorn; Nadje Noordhuis: trumpet, Flugelhorn; Deborah Weisz: trombone; Jennifer Krupa: trombone; Lori Stuntz: trombone (3, 4); Leslie Havens: bass trombone; Tomoko Ohno: piano; Chihiro Yamanaka: piano (3, 4); Noriko Ueda: bass; Nancy Wilson: vocals (3, 4); Marlena Shaw: vocals (7, 8, 9).

Swingin' Life

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Utopia

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 55:45
Size: 128,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:51)  1. Utopia
(4:16)  2. La Priere D'une Vierge
(4:40)  3. Mambo
(3:25)  4. Rhapsody In Blue / Strike Up The Band
(6:44)  5. Le Cygne
(5:34)  6. Piano Sonata No. 4
(5:35)  7. Orchestral Suite No. 2 - Badinerie / Ricochet
(5:57)  8. Arpeggione Sonata
(3:13)  9. I Loves You, Porgy
(4:00) 10. Shinda Otokono Nokoshita Monowa / Hope For Tomorrow
(2:39) 11. Hungarian Dance No. 5
(5:45) 12. Songs My Mother Taught Me

Chihiro Yamanaka is an internationally renowned, hard-swinging jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader, whose fluid, athletic technique has drawn rave reviews and very favorable comparisons to legends such as Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. She is based in New York.Yamanaka was born in Kiryu, in Japan's Gunma Prefecture, in 1976. At age four she began formal piano studies. While she began with classical music and still practices it, she shifted her focus to jazz studies in high school. After graduation she attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston as part of the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead residency program. She played with a wide range of musicians in Boston and in New York before heading back home to Japan after she graduated from Berklee in 2000 with honors  and took first place in Down Beat's Outstanding Performance Award competition. Temporarily returning to Japan, she began her recording career there in 2001 with Living Without Friday, the first of four annually released titles issued by the Japanese label Atelier Sawano. Nonetheless, Yamanaka's long-player gained notice immediately from critics and radio stations. Her 2002 follow-up, When October Goes, hit the top rungs of the Japanese jazz charts, and word began to spread among fans and critics across the Pacific back to America. Yamanaka had reached the level where she could tour not only in her home country but also Europe and select U.S. dates. During this time she was also a member of DIVA, the all-female big band led by drummer Sherrie Maricle. Yamanaka also performed with the DIVA spin-off quintet Five Play, who backed Marlene VerPlanck on her 2003 album It's How You Play the Game, all while continuing to tour and release her own recordings. In 2005 she signed a worldwide deal with Universal's Classics and Jazz division and issued her North American debut with the trio effort Outside by the Swing, recorded in New York City with drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts and bassist Robert Hurst. Yamanaka immigrated to the States and issued the audio-video package Lach Doch Mal in 2006 with Larry Grenadier and Jeff Ballard. 

While neither record made the jazz charts in the States, they reached the Top Five in Japan and upped the pianist's reputation to the degree that she became a global nomad, touring in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Arriving in 2007, Abyss was her first recording to feature drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Vicente Archer, who became her working trio. She broke the trio mold with 2009's Runnin' Wild, where her piano fronted a sextet. On 2010's Forever Begins, bassist Ben Williams replaced Archer in her trio. The following year saw the release of Reminiscence, which placed a live performance at the Iridium in New York with a studio album that featured Yamanaka in three different trio settings. In 2012 Yamanaka released the first of two tribute albums, Because, a loving nod to the Beatles on which she backed by a quartet played not only piano but synthesizer, organ, guitar, ukulele, and harmonica. Because was followed by the standards releases After Hours and After Hours 2. In 2013, she offered her tribute to classical music with Molto Cantabile. In 2014, Yamanaka moved from Verve to the Universal-owned Blue Note label just in time for its 75th anniversary. Her debut, Somethin' Blue, was a sextet offering, and in addition to originals offered striking renditions of Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco" and Herbie Hancock's "I Have a Dream." It reached into the Top Five on the jazz charts. She followed it the same year with Syncopation Hazard, her tribute to Scott Joplin. Yamanaka returned to the trio format for 2016's Blue Note-issued Guilty, which placed her original compositions alongside select pieces by Hoagy Carmichael. Near the end of 2017, Yamanaka produced and arranged Monk Studies. She played acoustic and electric piano, synth, and Hammond B-3 organ in an almost exclusively Monk program backed by drummer Deantoni Parks and bassist Mark Kelly. ~ Thom Jurek https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/utopia/1384328786

Utopia

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Chihiro Yamanaka - The Spheres : Live In Osaka!!

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:14
Size: 140,7 MB
Art: Front

( 7:05)  1. Rain, Rain And Rain
( 6:59)  2. Living Time: Event V
(10:34)  3. Yagibushi
( 6:23)  4. Bemsha Swing
( 3:52)  5. Himawari Musume
( 6:28)  6. Taxi
( 8:20)  7. The Entertainer
( 5:38)  8. Evidence
( 5:51)  9. Insight Foresight

Everyone in the world knows who Hiromi is - Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara was played with Chick Corea in Tokyo when she was 17 and after graduation in Berklee College in Boston (under Ahmad Jamal) she took the world by storm playing high energy technical fusion influenced by Return To Forever legacy. Hiromi is most probably most popular internationally Japanese jazz artist of today. Much less people outside of her homeland Japan know who is Chihiro Yamanaka, and it's a shame. She is Beklee graduated pianist who leads her own bands (usually trios as Hiromi does) from early 00's. Chihiro released her first album in 2001, two years prior to Hiromi, and in 2015 came with her first ever live release (and her 18th album at all). Being celebrity of sort in home country, she is relatively unknown in Western world. During last decade some her albums have been reissued in US and Europe though. The main difference between two is Hiromi is a piano power trio leader,playing technical high energy fusion, oriented first of all on neo jazz-rock fans. She started with playing tuneful contemporary chamber jazz, but it was fusion that made her a true star. Each success has its price trying to continue once reached success Hiromi for some years changes nothing in her music,which with every her new album becomes moreand more repetitive and predictable.

Chihiro Yamanaka played contemporary jazz for years - not polished anemic European chamber jazz,but groovy American one, closer to good pop-jazz.Her roots are all in bop, and there are no album where this influence isn't obvious. During last some years Chihiro turns more and more towards modern post bop, adding all her pop and rock legacy to it as well. The Sphere is are electro-acoustic trio with electric bassist Dana Roth and drummer Karen Teperberg. Chihiro herself plays piano and some analog keyboards, their music varies from pop-ballads to chamber tuneful songs to groovy post bop and fusion with analog keyboards passages. Played live in club in Osaka, all music is playful, shining, tuneful and full of joy.There are no really new things here, but the way how it is played will make you smiling. Nothing is repetitive or boring and that feeling recalls times when jazz was not a demonstration of techniques or ambitions,but the source of fan. http://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/review/the-spheres-live-in-osaka(live)/251925

Personnel:  Chihiro Yamanaka - Piano, Keyboards; Dana Roth - Electric Bass; Karen Teperberg - Drums.

The Spheres : Live In Osaka!!

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Chihiro Yamanaka - After Hours

Album: After Hours

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 34:42

Size: 79.4 MB

Styles: Piano jazz

Year: 2008

Art: Front

[3:13] 1. All Of Me

[5:34] 2. There Will Never Be Another You

[4:56] 3. Confirmation

[6:34] 4. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

[3:00] 5. Sioux City Sue New

[6:07] 6. All The Things You Are

[2:43] 7. Over The Rainbow

[2:31] 8. Everything Happens To Me

Yamanaka’s ninth release is a marvel of piano trio work, accomplished, focused and pretty. Her lightness of touch and unhurried calm come through on every number, showing why her CDs, each of them in piano trio format, continue to work so well. Her influences are apparent, Oscar Peterson’s can be heard on nearly every tune, as well as in the piano-guitar-bass setup, but she has a distinctive voice. Her phrasing on solos draws on Peterson-like runs, but she sounds like herself. This is traditional piano trio at its best, personal, intimate and swinging.

Jazz hounds who search for the roughest, most challenging jazz around might be put off by her polish and style. Yamanaka’s music is pristinely packaged by a major label. However, as with many talented musicians, popular and pristine does not mean predictable. She stays well within the boundaries of traditional jazz, but her appeal comes in her dedication to skill, craft and jazz beauty. She improvises relentlessly and beautifully. With no drummer, her solos sound all the more delicate.

The CD is extremely well recorded, with fantastic sound quality that cannot be heard on every label. It is very well packaged, in this sense, but that is not always what everyone wants. It is also a bit short, coming in at a total of 35 minutes, about half of most jazz recordings these days. One wishes, though for more than nice, cool prettiness on an often-played tune like “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which is only a couple minutes long, when it feels like the trio should have a lot more to say.

Those quibbles aside, each song is a delight. Her feeling is always pleasant, but inventive and tasteful. She plays hard, but it never feels like that. Without forcing anything, it becomes clear she does not have to. Her inventiveness comes in the constant flow of fast-paced solos with unerring sophistication. The hints of Peterson come in places like the first solo on “There Will Never Be Another You,” as well as on the straight-on bop of “Confirmation.” The womanly fancy-dress packaging of the CD might turn off some serious jazz fans, but this is extremely polished music with expressive lyricism and oodles of talent.

After Hours

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Guilty Pleasure

Styles: Piano Jazz 
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:10
Size: 119,8 MB
Art: Front

(5:10)  1. Clue
(6:16)  2. Guilty Pleasure
(6:23)  3. Caught In The Rain
(4:44)  4. Life Goes On
(4:36)  5. The Nearness Of You
(5:10)  6. At Dawn
(3:41)  7. Hedge Hop
(3:47)  8. Moment Of Inertia
(1:17)  9. Guilty Pleasure Reprise
(5:25) 10. Meeting You There
(5:36) 11. Thank You Baby

Born Kiryu, Japan. Yamanaka played piano from the age of four, studying classical music and was eventually awarded the grand prize of Japan’s Gumma Fresh Talent competition. In the USA, she studied at the Berklee College Of Music, graduating in 2000. She was critically praised, winning DownBeat magazine’s award for Outstanding Performance and the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Sisters In Jazz competition, following which she toured Europe with other winners. Among many artists with whom she has performed are George Benson, Gary Burton, Terri Lyne Carrington, Curtis Fuller, George Russell and Ed Thigpen. In the early 00s she was a member of DIVA, the all-female big band led by drummer Sherrie Maricle, with which group she has played concerts and recorded. Yamanaka also played in the DIVA spin-off quintet, Five Play, with which group she played on Marlene VerPlanck’s 2003 album It’s How You Play The Game. Among musicians Yamanaka has used on her recording dates are bass players Ray Parker, Ben Street and Larry Grenadier and drummers Ben Perowsky, Rodney Green and Jeff Ballard. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chihiro-yamanaka-mn0000283696/biography

Guilty Pleasure

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Syncopation Hazard

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:21
Size: 120,2 MB
Art: Front

(4:31)  1. Syncopation Hazard
(5:33)  2. The Entertainer / Ritual
(3:37)  3. Maple Leaf Rag
(5:31)  4. The Easy Winners
(5:10)  5. Dove
(5:15)  6. Reflection Rag
(5:35)  7. Sunflower Slow Drag / Ladies In Mercedes
(5:27)  8. New Rag
(5:23)  9. Heliotrope Bouquet
(2:54) 10. Uniformity Rag
(3:22) 11. Graceful Ghost Rag

Born Kiryu, Japan. Yamanaka played piano from the age of four, studying classical music and was eventually awarded the grand prize of Japan’s Gumma Fresh Talent competition. In the USA, she studied at the Berklee College Of Music, graduating in 2000. She was critically praised, winning DownBeat magazine’s award for Outstanding Performance and the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) Sisters In Jazz competition, following which she toured Europe with other winners. Among many artists with whom she has performed are George Benson, Gary Burton, Terri Lyne Carrington, Curtis Fuller, George Russell and Ed Thigpen. In the early 00s she was a member of DIVA, the all-female big band led by drummer Sherrie Maricle, with which group she has played concerts and recorded. Yamanaka also played in the DIVA spin-off quintet, Five Play, with which group she played on Marlene VerPlanck’s 2003 album It’s How You Play The Game. Among musicians Yamanaka has used on her recording dates are bass players Ray Parker, Ben Street and Larry Grenadier and drummers Ben Perowsky, Rodney Green and Jeff Ballard. ~ Bio http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chihiro-yamanaka-mn0000283696/biography

Personnel:  Chihiro Yamanaka - Piano, Fender Rhodes; Yoshi Waki - Bass; John Davis - Drums.

Syncopation Hazard

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Forever Begins

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2010
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:14
Size: 141,1 MB
Art: Front

(5:35)  1. So Long
(5:43)  2. Blue Pearl
(6:01)  3. Summer Wave
(6:34)  4. Cherokee
(5:47)  5. W.W.W.
(6:30)  6. Good Morning Heartache
(4:45)  7. Saudade E Carinho
(6:31)  8. Forever Begins
(4:53)  9. The Moon Was Yellow
(8:51) 10. Avance

Much better known in her native Japan (where she regularly tops the jazz charts), pianist Chihiro Yamanaka makes a strong claim to neo-bop mastery with Forever Begins, played with her trio, also featuring Ben Williams on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums. Yamanaka takes a playful tone on the original opener, ironically called "So Long," establishing that she will play lightning runs, sometimes taking up the whole keyboard, to sinuous rhythms. She acknowledges a major influence with Bud Powell's "Blue Pearl." Her "Cherokee" is a multi-part reinvention of the old swing standard, and she invests "Good Morning, Heartache" with unusual liveliness. Not surprisingly, given her energy, she particularly enjoys Latin rhythms on "Saudade e Carinho" and "The Moon Was Yellow." And she moves toward post-bop with her nearly nine-minute take on Russell Ferrante's "Avance." American mainstream jazz fans who may not be aware of Chihiro Yamanaka (even though she is based in the U.S.) would do well to seek out this album and some of the pianist's earlier work. ~ William Ruhlmann  http://www.allmusic.com/album/forever-begins-mw0002131240

Personnel: Chihiro Yamanaka (piano); Kendrick Scott (drums).

Forever Begins

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Chihiro Yamanaka - Reminiscence

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 56:55
Size: 130.3 MB
Styles: Post bop, Piano jazz
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[4:46] 1. Rain, Rain And Rain
[4:23] 2. Soul Searchin
[5:19] 3. (They Long To Be) Close To You
[3:46] 4. Dead Meat
[4:59] 5. Ele E Ela
[8:01] 6. This Masquerade
[2:43] 7. She Did It Again
[4:09] 8. Medley: You've Got A Friend/Central Park West
[3:43] 9. La Samba Des Prophetes
[5:09] 10. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You
[4:21] 11. Friday Night At The Cadillac Club
[5:31] 12. Sunny

Reminiscence is pianist Chihiro Yamanaka's second major-label U.S. release, following 2011's acclaimed Forever Begins. Yamanaka plays with two different trios on this date; one features her performing unit of bassist Yoshi Waki and drummer John Davis, while the other includes bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Yamanaka plays acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes, and organ in an ambitious program that highlights jazz, pop, Latin, and Brazilian covers, and includes a lone original, the opener "Rain, Rain and Rain." Reminiscence stands in sharp contrast to Forever Begins, which was heavy on fiery bop and post-bop. By comparing their respective track lists, one might be tempted to think that this set is laid-back by comparison. In this case, appearances are deceiving. Check her reading of the Burt Bacharach nugget "(They Long to Be) Close to You," where she not only deconstructs the harmony but rebuilds it with an expansive new architecture and a syncopated Latin rhythmic pulse. While her reading of Horace Silver's funky Latin groover "Soul Searchin'" is relatively straight-ahead, her reliance on minor modes and a further nod to Bacharach in her chord fills extrapolate its essence while keeping the funky blues feel intact. Her version of Leon Russell's "This Masquerade" is not only elegant but wonderfully eloquent, with subtle chord voicings and shimmering shapes. Her solo turns the tune inside out without giving up its graceful, sensual center. Another surprise here is her nearly straight read of Marcos Valle's "Ele e Ela," full of nearly voice-like phrasing and a beautiful breezy spaciousness. Her organ on Bob Berg's "Friday Night at the Cadillac Club" reveals the composer's debt to Silver, and her organ playing is more John Patton than Jack McDuff, but still swings like mad. "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" alternates between nearly classical counterpoint and pointillism and funky Rhodes work, and near its end gets into some mind-bending production tricks. Ultimately, Reminiscence proves to American audiences (outside of New York, where she has been based for some time) what Japanese audiences have known for a long time: that Yamanaka is a fierce talent with robust chops, plenty of soul, and a seemingly endless imagination for the musical possibilities of the piano trio. ~Thom Jurek

Reminiscence

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