Description
Randy Bellous, executive producer
Yuko Mabuchi, piano; Del Atkins, bass; and Bobby Breton, drums; performed for a full house at the Brain and Creativity Institute’s intimate Cammilleri Hall on March 31st, 2017. Yarlung recorded this classic performance in this intimate jewel of a concert hall. Yuko, Del and Bobby performed as a cohesive unit, and subsequent concert bookings will no doubt spread their music around the world.
Jeff Wilson captures the spirit of this concert, and the sound of the Trio’s debut Yarlung album, for The Absolute Sound: “If Mabuchi’s playing can be described as tasteful, economical, and lyrical, it should also be noted that her rapid single-note runs are impeccably executed. The performances benefit from an exceptionally realistic recording that stands out for its in-the-room ambiance and tonal clarity.”
Other audiophiles and jazz buffs have praised Yuko’s work in myriad publications. Robert H. Levy enthuses “Yuko Mabuchi plays the ivories with the touch of an angel and the understanding of an artist many times her young age. She is backed by seasoned musicians with strong drive plus an acute sense of playing with and not over the pianist. This is Yarlung’s third jazz album recorded like you wish all performances were recorded: listening is just like being there. All that’s missing here is the expensive tickets and sticky floor!” Read Bob Levi’s entire review here.
Peter Rutenberg writes “The trio exhibits consummate musicality and technique – with artful phrasing led by the pianist, a lyrical sensuousness in the bassist’s melodic counterpoints with the piano, and the drummer’s intelligent vocabulary and broad sweep tying it all together.” Please read Rutenberg’s extended comments.
Dr. Antonio Damasio generously invited us back to the Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall at USC for this concert and recording. This is the gem of a concert hall designed by Yasuhisa Toyota and lovingly built by Antonio and Hanna Damasio, where Yarlung recorded our first jazz albums with Sophisticated Lady jazz quartet. The superb concert hall acoustics and the cozy 90 seat size make Cammilleri ideal for all sorts of music but especially nice for an intimate jazz concert like this. If only more jazz clubs sounded like Cammilleri Hall!
SoundCloud:
YouTube Videos:
“So What,” from Yuko’s upcoming Miles Davis project
WA Mitchell –
A really great project. I can listen to it all night!
Bob Attiyeh –
Thank you! We are incredibly proud of Yuko, Del and Bobby and their tremendous musical accomplishment. I sense this is only the first Yarlung project with Yuko and her illustrious trio.
William Bing –
A remarkable musician, Yuko Mabuchi, seems to have assimilated the classic stylings of so many of her predecessors. Sometimes when I listen to her, it’s as if Joe Pass has been reborn as a keyboard player. Now an artist in her own right, her style is clearly of her own making. Her technique has all the cleanliness of Oscar Peterson, the beauty of Brad Mehldau, and the swing of Errol Gardner. Again, she doesn’t sound like any of the aforementioned artists, but clearly she’s studied them. The trio is wonderful; playing together suits them well. Five stars out of five stars!
jtbwriter –
Beautiful! Yuko’s touch with the piano is just magic! And her accompaniment by Del and Bobby just add to the enjoyment of classics like “Green Dolphin Street”! I’ll be playing this over and over!
Wayne Biessman, President, Jazz4us inc. –
We are so fortunate that this highly talented pianist has chosen to be a part of the Southern California Jazz Scene. Her mastery of the piano is truly remarkable. Her joy and enthusiasm while performing permeates every audience and always to standing ovations. Don’t miss her if you gt a chance to hear her live!
So it should be no surprise that her latest CD, Yuko Mabuchi Trio, is a joy to hear.
Don edwards –
Nicely done. Nice mix of classics with new music
Alan Bubitz –
Great set of music. Beautifully recorded. Yuko’s piano playing is captured realistically. The musicians are all captured beautifully in the Hall. Highly recommended recording of well played music. I hope you do more jazz recordings. This one and the Sophisticated Lady discs are top notch. Congrats on the good work.
Bob Attiyeh –
Thank you so much Alan. Glad you are enjoying Yarlung Jazz. And even happier you so liked Yuko Mabuchi Trio. We look forward to working with her and Del and Bobby again.
Iku Holladay –
I attended this Cammilleri Hall performance by Yuko Mabuchi Trio, and I have to say that the CD is just as great as the concert was. I remember tears of joy in my eyes during the medleys, and fresh tears returned when hearing them again on the recording. Thank you Yuko! You remind me of what is the best about Japan and the best about America. What a beautiful debut recording on Yarlung, which captures the magic of this now legendary session. Decades from now we in the audience will think back to that day and say “We were there!” 日本はあなたを誇りに思います！
Kunihiro Kameda, The School Of Music Plan – Kyoto, Japan –
素晴らしい出来映えに感心しました。元生徒のYUKOちゃんですが、一人のアーティストYUKOの音楽として同業者として聞き入ってしまいました。タッチ、リズム、グルーブ感、全体のダイナミクス、全てにおいて進化しましたね。何よりもピアノが歌っていてハートと音が直結してる感じがします。Bs Drとのコンビネーションやバランスも良く、ライブ盤なのに完成度の高さに感心しました。アレンジもかっこいい！
I am impressed with the wonderful quality of this recording. My former student, now a fully matured young artist, has evolved in every aspect: touch, rhythm, groove feeling, dynamics, everything. The piano is singing and the heart and the sound are directly connected. I was impressed with the high degree of professionalism and expertise captured in this live concert, including the beautiful balance with the drums and bass. Ms. Mabuchi’s arrangements are sophisticated and cool. I can now listen to Yuko Mabuchi as a peer, one musician to another.
(rough translation from Japanese)
Bob Attiyeh –
Kameda-san, thank you for your comments and for your support of Yuko Mabuchi and her trio. We are fiercely proud of their accomplishments and are happy you are enjoying how your young student has blossomed into a full-fledged dynamo on the concert stage.
–Bob Attiyeh
Tony Harrison –
Wow! Now this is the way all recording should be done. From the start of the first selection I instantly knew the Yuko Mabuchi Trio was going to be special and I absolutely love the energy, spontaneity and freshness of truly live recordings.
So many recordings are made today in which the musicians are not even in the same studio at the same time and some of them may not even be in the same state when recording.
I have further discovered that today, while a recording may be labelled “live” it may not actually indicate the recording was performed before a live audience. It likely means all of the musicians were actually in the studio together at the same time and performed when the recording was made. So thank you Yarlung Records for producing a truly “Live” recording (in front of a live audience).
I was hooked with the very first selection, just swinging and with Yuko, Del and Bobby. Breton’s playing on the bass drum in particular; I thought my rear wall (behind my speakers) was about to explode from the impact. And, the sounds of his sticks are so crisp and sharp. The same is true for St. Thomas. Geez!
The sound of Yuko’s playing of piano is so clear, spacious and lifelike in tone and bassist Del Atkins gave my woofers a thorough and extensive workout.
As I listened to this terrific recording, you all have truly captured the venue as well as the musicians. It’s as though I’ve entered a concert hall and the huge, spacious holographic soundstage appears before me in my dedicated listening room. The realism and acoustics captured throughout the recording are stunning and somewhat eerie, particularly with my room lights down low.
Oh by the way Bob, let me thank you for getting the positions of the musicians spot on. Perfect. Unfortunately, in so many recordings, this is not the case. Typically, I find the drummer is commonly spread across the entire soundstage (extending from the left side to the right). For example, the cymbals and bass drum might appear to the left side while the remaining parts of the drummer’s kit are heard on the other side of the soundstage. The same can be said for the piano, which is often spread across from one side of the soundstage to the other. For me, this only spoils the illusion and is inaccurate. But, you guys have correctly nailed it on Yuko’s recording.
I also appreciate the selection of material Yuko has chosen to include. I believe it was wise that she included standards. Sadly, not all but many young artists today, it seems, are only interested in creating recordings that feature original material exclusively and I often find much of it to be weak and uninteresting. How refreshing it is to find that is not the case here. Bravo.
The one original selection, “Sona’s Song”, is lovely and wonderfully played by Yuko with such grace, elegance and sensitivity and I love it.
But, I found the entire recording to be simply sensational, from one selection to the next. Not a single throwaway in the bunch. My attention, interest and pleasure were completely locked in from start to finish. What a ride and so varied from free flying romp and swing, to sweet tenderness. And all of the emotion, passion and brilliance are completely captured in this finely engineered recording.
Even the included recording notes booklet is first rate, well composed, informative and adds great value. Normally, it seems the notes (if any) are but a very limited afterthought and incomplete at best.
By the way, let me thank Yarlung Records for continuing to produce and make CD’s available. It seems some labels are starting to make only downloads available.
As I continue to enjoy this superb recording for many years ahead, I’m also very much looking forward to Yuko’s next release. For now, I’m going to continue to relish and revel in this outstanding recording. Well done.
Craig L Martin –
I love this recording. Great performance, great music, and a great recording – AWESOME!
Bob Attiyeh –
Thank you Craig! And thank you Craig and Diane for being such vital underwriters for this album. We plan for Yuko Mabuchi to become the most celebrated jazz pianist in the world. How is that for a modest goal? Your album, the debut album for Yuko Mabuchi Trio, is a firm step in that direction.
Much appreciated,
Bob
John Colombo –
About an hour before we needed to walk out the door I tore open the packaging, and played Yuko Mabuchi Trio.
And all I can say is that this recording is spectacular in every way – from the musicianship of the trio itself to the actual recording and sound quality. My listening room is 30×30’ and behind my listening position (about 12’ from the front wall) sits a 5.5’ Mason-Hamlin grand piano. So I’m intimately familiar with what a real piano should sound like in my listening room. When I listened, it was like someone had moved the Mason-Hamlin to the front of the room and flanked it with drums and bass. This wasn’t listening to a recording of a jazz trio; this was the actual jazz trio, right there in my room.
Now it’s true that my stereo system is pretty much made for this kind of music. My Magneplanar 1.6QR’s, fed by a Musical Fidelity A5 amp, are perfect reproducers for small-ensemble acoustic music, whether it be jazz trio or classical string quartet. But nothing I have in my music collection sounds this real. The transient attacks in the upper register of the piano are rendered exactly correctly; a real piano in this room has a bit of bite to a fortissimo C three octaves above middle C, and that’s exactly what I hear. The piano timbre overall is slightly different from my Mason-Hamlin (I can’t tell from the photos, but I suspect it’s a Steinway; a Yamaha has a much more forward, and dare I say less integrated, sound than this), but the illusion of a real piano sitting there in front of the speakers is . . . unbelievable. I’m sitting there with the audience, 15’ or so from Yuko, and when they applaud, so do I.
–John C
Bob Attiyeh –
John, thank you so much for your enthusiasm and for this review. Your ear is extraordinary. Yuko indeed plays a New York Steinway in this recording, one she absolutely loves. (She’ll be back for another recording and concert in April!)
Yarlung’s Misha Bigos recently gave a concert in Cammilleri Hall with his new trio, and he waxed poetic about this piano, saying it felt like butter and may be his favorite piano in the world.
Thanks!
Bob
Brian Moura –
Great release. Selected it as one of my Top Picks for NativeDSD Music this year.
My only question – can we get the Yuko Mabuchi Trio to play “People Make The World Go Round”, “Feel Like Making Love”, “Girl Talk”, “Só Danço Samba” and some of their other YouTube favorites on the next Yarlung DSD release? That would really usher in 2018 with a bang!
Bob Attiyeh –
Hello Brian! Thank you so much for your support. Happily, we have a couple of projects with Yuko Mabuchi on the drawing board. Our next celebrates the music of Miles Davis, but future concerts and recordings do indeed include some of Yuko’s YouTube hits as well as more of her own tunes. Yuko is as great a composer as she is a performer. Thank you for your support of Yuko and her Trio on NativeDSD.
Tony MacLaren –
Yuko’s piano playing flows magically from her nimble fingers as she guides us deeper down into her jazzy rabbit hole. Smooth, lush arrangements entice and energize us, as she and her experienced trio explore the intricate nuances of the melodies. The excellent recording faithfully captured the mood and vibrations of the group’s masterful performance. Looking forward to more of Yuko Mabuchi’s original ideas manifesting on her future recordings and concerts.
Great work!
— Tony MacLaren :^}
Antigravity Records
Bob Attiyeh –
Thank you so much, Tony. This review, coming as it does from a fellow musician and recording artist, means so much. I’m glad you enjoy Yuko and her trio. We look forward to our next project with the Trio in April! Join us for the concert if you will be in town.
Sincerely and thanks,
Bob
PETROS MAKRIDIS –
Congratulations, very best mastering. You Are an Example to Meet Others How are the recordings made a lot of congratulations.THANKS
Bob Attiyeh –
Thank you Petros! We do our best to ensure the best possible sound in our CDs and in all the formats we release. Mastering guru Steve Hoffman took me under his wing when Yarlung Records began, and he continues to guide our sonic philosophy and minimalist approach to this day. And we are honored to work with Bernie Grundman who masters the lacquers for our LPs. Yarlung is fortunate indeed.
But if you like this music (and the sound of these recordings) credit goes first and foremost to our valiant musicians and the magnificent music they give us on stage during our recordings and concerts. Arian Jansen and I recorded this Yuko Mabuchi Trio album together, and are delighted with the results.
Thank you for your enthusiasm and for your support!
Bob
Mori Shima –
The analog version is currently the hottest hit at High End audio shows. Sony Rollins’ “St. Thomas” (the last track on a CD) is a popular demonstration track that complements high-end audio equipment all over the world….
The album opens with the standard “What Is This Thing Called Love” composed by Cole Porter. You first hear the intro played by the piano. Don’t be surprised if you are fooled into thinking this is a real instrument in your home or on an intimate concert stage. This is not mere “piano-like sound” or even “spectacular piano sound.” The piano is the most difficult instrument to record for a number of reasons, including its extremely wide dynamic range and frequency range, and its large structural footprint. This CD, however, “stays cool,” as if nothing will challenge the recording team, nothing difficult is going to scare them. Throughout, you hear the sound of Yuko playing a relaxed, vivid piano without any analytical or artificial elements.
Mitchel Whitehead –
A wonderful jazz trio recording with fantastic balance and spectacular imaging. Mabuchi’s piano sings. Play this album at realistic volume levels and you will be rewarded with a near-live performance experience. This is why we listen…