Description

Yuko Mabuchi, piano
Del Atkins, bass
Bobby Breton, drums

Tracks

1. What Is This Thing Called Love
2. Valse Noire
3. On Green Dolphin Street
4. Seriously

Executive producers Craig and Diane Martin attended Yarlung’s annual meeting in 2017, where Yuko, Del and Bobby played to celebrate the release of the trio’s first CD underwritten and executive produced by Randy Bellous.  The Martins knew they wanted to support Yuko further.  And with help from David B. Levinson, the Martins underwrote Bernie Grundman’s 45RPM pressing of the first half of this album on vinyl. Please see Yuko Mabuchi Trio’s CD page for more information and liner notes about the entire project.  This valiant team has also underwritten Volume 2, which will be released later.

Yuko dedicated this release to the 25^th Anniversary of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, the largest association of audiophiles on the planet, and to the 70^th Birthday of Robert H. Levi, our society’s illustrious President and CEO.  Thank you Bob Levi, Diane, Craig, David, Yuko, Del and Bobby for giving us so much to celebrate.

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 ambience and tonal clarity.

–Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound

The youthful Yuko’s jazz performances on the piano are remarkably mature, as are her accompanists on the double bass and drums.  …the presence of the recording is uncannily real.

–Neville Roberts, The UK’s Hi-Fi Choice

This live recording is an awe-inspiring work of art. Pianist Yuko Mabuchi is as exciting on recording as she is in person. Here is a production that sparkles with improvisational creativity, energy, and the piano talents of a young and developing super star.  This is a soulful CD, combining cultures, like serving grits and gravy with delicious miso soup. This talented lady and her trio are a force of nature that bring musical excellence and energetic excitement to an unforgettable jazz production.

–Dee Dee McNeil

Yuko Mabuchi takes command of both her instrument and the listener’s ears from the first stroke of the album’s opener … the live album is a must-own for piano trio aficionados and jazz lovers of all stripes.

A tremendous highlight of the album is… “On Green Dolphin Street.”  Pitched in Bill Evans’ preferred key of E-flat…. Dave Brubeck himself would have applauded the tight interplay of time between one half of the head, presented in a heavy ¾ that alternates sweetly with the straight ‘four-on-the-floor’ 4/4 of the next four bars of the same phrase….  Mabuchi, delicious bassist Del Atkins, and tasty drummer Bobby Breton make it new all over again….

Mabuchi’s right hand is the star of each of her solo flights.  Clean, precise, and crisp like forebears Teddy Wilson, Marian McPartland, and Tommy Flanagan, but deeply harmonically and rhythmically inspired like the mentioned Evans…

–Kathryn Ballard Shut, JazzTimes

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.

–Kunihiro Kameda, Kyoto

Cole Porter: What Is This Thing Called Love

from Cole Porter’s musical Wake Up and Dream premiered by Elsie Carlisle in London in March of 1929.  Frances Shelley sang the tune in the Broadway premiere in December of the same year.  Famous recordings include those by Billie Holiday, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Anita O’Day, Julie London and Wynton Marsalis. 

Mark Lehman: Valse Noire

Cincinnati composer and writer Mark Louis Lehman follows some of his compositional heroes, Hindemith, Bartók, Piston and Martin, with music both insightful and intimate.  Here Yuko Mabuchi improvises with her trio on Lehman’s opening tune of Valse Noire, originally written for solo piano.

Bronisław Kaper: On Green Dolphin Street

Miles Davis made this tune world famous in his 1958 recording, but Kaper wrote this tune in 1947 for the film Green Dolphin Street.  Also recorded by Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and a long list of other famous interpreters.

Sara Bareilles: Seriously

Bareilles wrote Seriously for the singer Leslie Odom Jr. for a special session on This American Life.  Yuko arranged this captivating tune and its nuances of deep humanity for the Trio.   They performed it for the first time in Cammilleri Hall during our Yarlung concert.

Yuko Mabuchi moved to the United States from her native Japan only recently, but when she plays American jazz she speaks the language perfectly.  I love Yuko’s sense of rhythm and melody, and her improvising feels like she was born in Detroit or New York City.  Her technique reminds me of some of Yuko’s music idols like Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Monty Alexander.  But beyond her talent for traditional jazz, one can also hear flavors of American R&B, Hip-Hop and Blues, which Yuko loved as a teenager.  This album’s associate producer and Yarlung special advisor Billy Mitchell describes Yuko’s playing as “funky from the heart,” and he means that as an enormous compliment.  Yuko was born in Fukui, on the west coast of Japan, north of Kyoto.

Dr. Antonio Damasio generously invited us back to the Brain and Creativity Institute’s Cammilleri Hall at USC for this concert and recording, 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!

–Bob Attiyeh, producer