Let’s take a look at the best jazz albums we heard in 2021.
BEST OF 2021: YOKO MIWA
USA’s JazzTimes Magazine chooses Yoko’s ‘Songs of Joy’ as one of the best of 2021!
Downbeat Annual Readers Poll
Yoko Miwa’s ‘Songs of Joy’ is chosen by USA’s Downbeat Readers Poll as one of the Best Albums of 2021
Four Big Stars for Yoko Miwa!
All About Jazz’z Dan McClenaghan writes, “Miwa's piano notes are like teardrops breaking from that wash and falling to the floor.”
For the full review, please click on the image, above.
REVIEW: Yoko Miwa Trio 'Songs of Joy'
JBN writes, “Her trio, with its remarkable telepathy and infectious energy, has brought audiences to their feet worldwide.”
For the full review, please click on the image, above.
Jazzed Features Matt Ridley & Yoko Miwa
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Three Ubuntu Artists Selected by jazzwise Magazine as Best Albums of 2021 (so far)
These outstanding albums were reviewed in the 2021 issues of Jazzwise and all were selected as Editor's Choice.
The new release from Japanese pianist Yoko Miwa has an appealing lockdown title. Who couldn’t do with a little joy right about now? And this 11-cut disc certainly delivers on its titular promise. The recording comes out of Miwa’s response to the pandemic, which, the Berklee professor explains, was to compose every day. Accordingly there are five new originals, paired with six covers. ‘The one emotion that unites all the songs is one of JOY,’ Miwa says, not at all misleadingly: there’s a splendid, irrepressible energy about these tracks... Robert Shore
This completes an unusual trilogy of releases, following Glaser’s duo albums with saxophonist Matthew Herd, then pianist Liam Noble on Climbing in Circles Part 1 and 2, whose near identical tracklists tried to tease out how players’ personalities impact material. The MO is loosened here, letting the combined trio relax into musical friendship, playing covers and originals. ‘Mood Indigo’ is dismantled for inspection, in a thankfully less extreme version of Douglas Gordon’s Hitchcock art installation deconstruction 24 Hour Psycho, as Noble slows and delays the melody, only to find it indestructible. Nick Hasted
Nigel Price (g), Tony Kofi (as), Vasilis Xenopoulos (ts), Ross Stanley (org), Joel Barford (d), Snowboy (perc), Callum Au (arr, tb), plus the Phonograph Effect Strings: Kay Stephen, Anna Brigham (vn), Elitsa Bogdanova (vla) and Chris Terepin (clo). Rec. 7-8 September, 30 September, 20 October 2020
As its title implies, this is Price looking afresh at compositions by his hero Wes Montgomery, and re-casting them in ways that he feels Wes might well have considered. Or welcomed. Add to that, Price’s decision to enlist Au to create discrete string arrangements for three of the 10 numbers and then to enlist Snowboy to splice in percussion effects, and you can see that this surpasses anything else that he has done up to now. Peter Vacher
REVIEW: Yoko Miwa Trio 'Songs of Joy'
Music Man gives a big thumbs up, writing “When this trio plays they seem inspired and produce music sounds that are a joy to hear.”
for the full review, please click on the image, aboue.
REVIEW: Yoko Miwa Trio 'Songs of Joy'
Jazz Album of the Week: Pianist Yoko Miwa Displays Depth and Dynamism on 'Songs of Joy'
For the full review, please click on the image, above.
REVIEW: Yoko Miwa Trio 'Songs of Joy'
Music Street Journal writes, “Whatever you call this, though, it's exceptional jazz.”
