Eri Yamamoto was
so charming at Hatch Hall Tuesday night that the audience was in love
with her before she had played a note. Once she began to play her fantastic
bluesy opener, “You Are Welcome,” we only fell deeper. She explained that it
was the first tune she wrote when she moved from Japan to New York City because
she was intrigued by the way Americans thanked each other.
Becoming a New Yorker was the subject of her next endearing
story. Classically trained, she knew little about jazz when she visited the
city as a tourist. She went to see Tommy Flanagan’s trio at a club and was so
taken with the music she approached the pianist and said, “I want to be like
you.” He told her to move to New York, and a month later, she did. Long story
short, 21 years later she is a lot like Tommy Flanagan.
Yamamoto played all
original tunes and every one was superb. She played an exuberant
composition titled “Life,” about experiences like the one above. She seemed
genuinely in awe of the unlikely events that led up to that very moment that
she was at the festival playing for us. It was all incredibly sincere and the
music was wonderful.
Another tune, “Half Moon,” was written as a reaction to
glimpsing a shining moon in a dark sky at just the right angle from her
apartment window, which is mostly blocked by tall buildings. You could almost
feel the weight of the dark sky in her brooding bass notes and see the
brilliance of the half-moon in the jubilant melodies of her dancing right hand.
It was a gorgeous musical metaphor for her celebration of life.
There was much more, like the touching “Echo of an Echo,” she
wrote when she heard her late father’s voice while practicing. For me,
Yamamoto’s set was the highlight of the festival so far.
Earlier in the evening I heard another excellent pianist, Steve
Kuhn, at Kilbourn Hall. Kuhn’s set featured
standards like “Stella By Starlight” and “My Shining
Hour” with a lyrical touch that was matched by the musicians in his excellent
trio.
Drummer Billy Drummond had a near-symbiotic relationship to
Kuhn; after two decades with the pianist, he seemed to anticipate every move.
Drummond also had a fascinating habit of spinning the stick in his left hand
and playing portions of tunes with the blunt end of that left stick.
The set was consistently strong, but I thought Kuhn saved the
best for last when he played two of his own compositions: “Trance” and “Oceans in
the Sky.” The former lived up to its name with hypnotic melodies featuring
clusters of notes that always seemed to come back on themselves while the
latter had a euphoric quality to match the grandeur of the concept.
The audience was definitely into saxophonist Dave
O’Higgins at Christ Church, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of taste,
but I found the group to be a bit buttoned up (literally — they were all
wearing coats and ties). Every time O’Higgins took a solo, it seemed loud and
brash. This could work on a bold tune like George Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” but it robbed Thelonious Monk’s
“‘Round Midnight” of its mystique. The best moments (to me) were those when
pianist Jeb Patton was taking a solo. He was excellent.
Wednesday night I’ll start with pianist George Cables at
Hatch Hall. Then I’ll check out Ryan Keberle &
Catharsis at the Little Theatre. I’ll close out the night with the Charles
Pillow Large Ensemble at Xerox Auditorium.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2017.
