Jorge Capadocia reviews “Yuko Mabuchi Trio” for NativeDSD

Yuko Mabuchi Trio: Some Standards and some nice surprises This live recording starts with What Is This Thing Called Love and Yuko’s playing, along with Bobby’s drum solo, immediately engages the audience. Throughout the album, Yuko is very sensitive and lyrical in her playing and does not go for bombast unless the music demands. When it does though, like in Sona’s Song (a composition of her own), we are in for a real treat: a very intense outburst erupts, breaking a simple delicate melody. Del Atkins and Bobby Breton are supportive in their playing, with… well executed solos. The musical rapport among them is evident in Seriously, in which the ornamented piano playing is executed over a repetitive and rhythmic bass – roles are switched for a moment and the transitions sound very fluid. Other highlights include a Japanese medley that goes from delicate to psychedelic (!) to spirited, and Continue Reading →

Review: Yuko Mabuchi Trio Concert

by Robert H. Levi Senior Associate Editor at Large, Positive Feedback 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! The selection of mostly standards and stand-outs is delightful and hard to leave. I liked every one of them, particularly the All The Things You Are, Take The A Train, Satin Doll Medley and St. Thomas, a Sonny Rollins classic. The Japanese Medley was hauntingly gorgeous and intriguing. I played it twice in my first listening pass. The album is all about Yuko Mabuchi and Continue Reading →

Sophisticated Lady jazz quartet: NEW RECORDINGS!

Vinyl | CD-1 | CD-2 | Amazon CD | iTunes  | HDtracks  | SoundCloud | Native DSD Vol 1  | Native DSD Vol 2 | Reviews Sophisticated Lady is a Los Angeles-based Jazz Quartet. The group is a traditional jazz quartet rooted in the sounds, styles and history of jazz and brings a fresh approach to this music. With a mix of original compositions and new interpretations of classic repertoire this quartet has a sound and aesthetic that is both familiar and new. The group formed when the musicians met during their graduate studies at USC. Misha Adair Bigos, pianist; JJ Kirkpatrick, trumpet; Andrew Boyle, drums; Gary Wicks, bass www.sophisticatedladyjazz.com

The Absolute Sound – Yarlung Records Makes A Splash

Yarlung Records Makes A Splash By Jeff Wilson   |  Aug 13th, 2014 Categories: Jazz, Classical One of the pleasures of experiencing a second golden age of audio is witnessing all the ways record labels keep evolving. Take, for example, Yarlung Records, a California- based company that, when it was launched in 2005, was just one more small label in the increasingly sink-or-swim music industry. Almost ten years later Yarlung remains, in the words of owner Bob Attiyeh (uh-TEA-yuh), “too small to fail,” yet its list of accomplishments points to the success a label can achieve when it combines carefully-chosen performances with superb-sounding recordings. Case in point: In 2010 Yarlung won a Grammy for Antonio Lysy at The Broad: Music from Argentina, a recording that also earned a spot on the list of top forty best-sounding recordings TAS compiled in Issue 234. A big part of Yarlung’s success comes from its Continue Reading →