Fans of vintage vocal jazz will be drawn to singer Yako Horikita’s debut album Shining Hour, a swinging collection of twelve jazz standards delivered with a shining, sparking sincerity.
Singing along with a piano trio plus saxophone, Horikita picks winners from the classic jazz songbook with tunes including “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, “Falling In Love With Love”, and “Under A Blanket Of Blue”. Horikita’s voice, a pleasant mix of deep huskiness with a light delicate touch, is confident, friendly, and warm, fitting perfectly with her jazz combo’s solid performance.
While most of the tracks are straightforward mid-tempo swingers, a few of tunes offer variations with bossa and ballads on “When Sunny Gets Blue”, “Second Love”, and the album closer, a sweetly nostalgic “Over The Rainbow”.
Shining Hour by Yako Horikita
- Yako Horikita - vocal
- Takenori Sawaki - alto saxophone
- Makoto Deguchi - piano
- Ken Kaneko - bass
- Nobuhiko Yamashita - drums
Released in 2017 on Kylym Records as KYLYM-0001.
Japanese names: 堀北やこ Horikita Yako 佐脇武則 Sawaki Takenori 出口誠 Deguchi Makoto 金子健 Kaneko Ken 山下暢彦 Yamashita Nobuhiko
Audio and Video
- Excerpt from track #11: “Under A Blanket Of Blue”