By Ric Bang
Buy CD: After the Rainfall
Once in awhile, we encounter
an artist who just has too much talent; Hiroe Sekine falls into that
category. This Japanese-born young woman is a pianist, composer, arranger
and vocalist — she sings in four languages — and she excels at each
skill.
Her first album a-me (which means “rain”),
released in 2009, utilized a sextet featuring piano, sax, trumpet, trombone,
bass and drums; half the tunes were her compositions, while the rest were jazz
standards ... and everything swung marvelously.
For this release, she
retained Bob Shepard on sax and flute, and Peter Erskine on drums, added
guitarist Larry Koonse, and utilized two bassists: Darek Oles on acoustic and
Jimmy Johnson on electric. This instrumentation, and Shepard’s use of
flute and the higher-register reed instruments, results in a “lighter” sound.
In addition, while a-me
contained only instrumentals, After the Rainfall includes some vocals; Sekine’s voice, heard on
the title song (her own composition), Jobim’s “Inutil Paisagesm” and Toninho Horta’s “Aqui O,” is exceptional.
Her duet with Arnold McCuller on the beautiful Beatles ballad “In My Life” is gorgeous.
A quartet format —
consisting of Sekine’s piano, Sheppard’s soprano sax, Ole’s bass and Erskine’s
drums — is used for Chick Corea’s “Windows” (one of Sekine’s favorite melodies). The
final three tracks ably demonstrate how well this lady swings. For “So But Anyway,” she
switches from piano to electric keyboard; Koonse and Sheppard provide great
solos, backed by some tasty work by Erskine. “Spoon Key” is a truly swinging, straight-ahead tune that
will cause all body parts to move; and Monk’s lesser-known “Evidence” morphs into a rock/fusion
mode.
This is an
exciting follow-up to Sekine’s debut album: a release that fulfills the promise
of that initial offering. Her many significant talents, particularly when combined
with the similarly excellent artists in the combo, will ensure great success
for her in the future.
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