eFreydut: Fairway
Fairway is a new Japanese jazz album recorded last year in New York and released in Japan just last month. Drummer Ko Omura, pianist Mikiko Nagatake, and bassist Kanoa Mendenhall form a trio known as eFreydut for this album. The gorgeously recorded music contains ten tracks of innovative and in-control original jazz with a running time of fifty-three minutes. As is natural for these creative jazz musicians, this album features mostly original music stamped with individuality. There are five contributions from drummer Omura, three from Nagatake, and one group improvisation from all three musicians. The one covered song is the beautiful ballad “Touch Her Soft Lips and Part” by Sir William Walton, played with exquisite clarity and sweetness, and reminiscent of the gentle interpretation on drummer Peter Erskine’s 1996 trio ECM album As it Is with John Taylor and Palle Danielsson. ...