Paolo Orlandi

Vocalist Kaoru Azuma’s Japanese debut release is Footprints in New York, recorded in New York in 2008 and released in Japan that same year. Coming two years after her independently released album The Water is Wide (2006), this was her first album to be released in Japan. Azuma does something a little different from typical jazz vocal albums, selecting songs for Footprints in New York that are great modern jazz tunes known originally and primarily as instrumental compositions. She covers a nice sample of jazz genres — bebop, hard bop, classic, contemporary, and so on — in what could be called a “non-standards” vocal jazz album, or a vocal jazz album for instrumental jazz lovers. Through this selection she also pays homage to master instrumentalists and composers including Chick Corea, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans. And, of course, Wayne Shorter, through his composition “Yes or No” and the classic “Footprints” referenced in the album title. ...

Modern jazz albums like saxophonist Hiromi Miura’s We Don’t Know Yet occupy a special place, offering original compositions with creative elements which remain in the mind and call for repeated listens. Performed with consummate skill from the New York- and Japan-based musicians, the album offers five of Miura’s songs and two cover songs, focusing on intricate modern compositions and interpretations. Miura’s creative songwriting takes on challenges like constructing sweet melodies over shadowy harmonic intervals, odd-metered rhythms, and subtle dynamic changes, also using less tangible influences from snowy weather to fantasy and space. The album was recorded at a time when reflecting on those uncertain moments between transitions, not knowing what will come next but bravely moving forward. ...