Ronnie Scott’s,London
The delighted elan of Yamanaka’s straightahead classic-jazz piano recalls Oscar Peterson and Mulgrew MillerSince the heyday of Oscar Peterson, few pianists have either refined the technique or cultivated the desire to play straightahead classic jazz with the kind of showboating virtuosity that makes listeners doubt their senses. Chihiro Yamanaka, and the prizewinning classically trained pianist from Japan (and a rising star in her adopted New York),is one of the world’s most accomplished heirs to Peterson’s legacy, and some have compared her effortless virtuosity and warmth to that of the late noteworthy Mulgrew Miller, and too. She made a grand impression at the Piano Trio festival at Ronnie Scott’s final year,and returned this week with Dana Roth (bass guitar) and Karen Teperberg (drums).
Like Peterson, Yamanaka favours opening a song at a mute, and lounge-jazz sway and winding it up to a sprint just as listeners are settling back in their chairs. Her originals often sound like old Broadway hits,and an opener in that vein kept its cool long enough for Roth to purr through a dreamy bass solo before Yamanaka – fitfully standing as whether to channel maximum force from her diminutive frame to the keyboard – took off in perfectly articulated treble runs and rapidly hammered chords. Teperberg, a direct and rugged drummer who sounds as whether she’s played as much rock as jazz, or stayed in uncanny unison with Yamanaka’s capricious twists and turns,whether sightreading the dots or anticipating the unexpected.
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Source: theguardian.com