Tomoko Omura (5 string violin); Alex Goodman (guitar); George
Delancey (bass).
(Review by
Lance).
I've always had an affinity with jazz violin,
perhaps it was because my first efforts at making music were on a cut price
Strad or, more likely, it was when I first heard Stephane Grappelli (or
Grappelly as he called himself then). To this day I love the gypsy jazz sound
as personified by local exponent Emma Fisk. However, I also love more modern
sounds and, somehow, Jean-Luc Ponty never quite cut it for me.
Enter Tomoko Omura, Berklee graduate, the first
violinist to receive the prestigious Roy Haynes Award and, now, with two
previous albums to her name, this latest release.
Using a 5 stringed instrument, the additional C
string enables the instrument to drop down into viola territory making it a
very versatile instrument indeed.
The album's an attempt (successful) to combine
gypsy jazz and bebop.
Parker's Relaxin'
at Camarillo and Monk's Four in One take us down 52nd St. and it's more
than a nostalgia trip - the flattened fifth lives!
Smile,
written by no less a person than Charlie Chaplin, is given a fairly straight
interpretation.
JR - nothing to do with Dallas - inspired by the lively sounds
you hear in Japanese railway stations. This one is even boppier than the
earlier bop anthems and makes me wish the Metro, or even the Orient Express had
a branch line to Tokyo! An Omura original.
Another original by the violinist is The Boy From Boylston,
dedicated to her husband Glenn Zaleski.
The music of Warne Marsh doesn't, regrettably,
turn up very often these days which is a shame. Marsh was very much underrated
both as a player and as an individual influence. Post-bop but not hard bop; cool
but neither east coast nor west coast cool.
He was, simply, Warne Marsh.
That Omura should choose Marsh’s Background Music for her album says much for her perception and
much for his music’s longevity.
We move into heavier waters for Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 Aria. Still
compelling music. Maybe even more so as, much as we enjoyed the previous, here
we were into a more intense area, a different land. That additional C string
came well into play at the end.
Arabesque by Debussy kept us in a classical vein. Goodman, playing
one of his many fine solos, may have given the late composer a twitch as he
reposed in Paris’ Cimetiere de Montrouge but not enough for him to turn over.
Claude may have even mouthed tres bon.
From
Debussy to a jazz romantic – Lionel Hampton. Hampton may not have always been a
balladeer but when he was there were few better. Midnight Sun enables Omura to build on those qualities.
Back
to bebop for the final track – Wee by
Denzil Best (was it also known as Allen’s Alley?)
And
a great finale. Omura is a fine player and, in Goodman and Delancey, she couldn’t
have had better support.
Lance
Available July 7 via usual outlets.
Available July 7 via usual outlets.
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