Kumiko Akiyoshi

Taking time off from her big band, pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi is well showcased on this excellent trio outing with bassist Dennis Irwin and drummer Eddie Marshall. She performs four veteran standards (including "Solitude" and "You Stepped Out of a Dream") and a quartet of originals. Of the new pieces, "Interlude" and "I Know Who Loves You" (the latter is based on the chords of "Somebody Loves Me") are among the highlights. Akiyoshi's piano playing sometimes gets overlooked due to her work with her orchestra so this particularly strong set (reissued on CD) serves as a reminder of her excellent Bud Powell-inspired style. Recommended.

Toshiko Akiyoshi was only 23 years old when Oscar Peterson heard her during a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan in 1953; he immediately went raving to impresario Norman Granz to implore him to record her. So Granz produced Akiyoshi's debut as a leader on a 10" disc (released as Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi in Japan and as Toshiko's Piano elsewhere) with the Jazz at the Philharmonic rhythm section (guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer J.C. Heard). The Bud Powell influence is rather obvious during several of the tracks, as Akiyoshi slashes her way through "What Is This Thing Called Love?," "I Want to Be Happy," the lesser-known "Shadrach," and a very brisk treatment of Johnny Hodges' "Squatty Roo." She also shows promise at more relaxed tempos, playing standards such as "Gone With the Wind" and a dreamy, somewhat impressionistic piano solo of "Laura"…

While pianist-arranger-composer Toshiko Akiyoshi headed a fine big band in New York after moving cross-country in 1982, the orchestra that she led in Los Angeles in the 1970s was arguably her greatest accomplishment. The three-CD Mosaic Select set Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band collects all of the music originally released on the RCA albums Kogun, Long Yellow Road, Tales of a Courtesan, Insights, and March of the Tadpoles. With such major players as Akiyoshi’s husband Lew Tabackin on tenor and flute, trumpeters Bobby Shew and Don Rader, trombonist Britt Woodman and altoist Gary Foster among the many soloists in the all-star band, the orchestra could swing as hard as any of its competitors. In addition to the more boppish pieces, Akiyoshi often wrote works that displayed her Japanese heritage, utilizing Eastern harmonies and instruments along with her husband’s flute. Many of the highpoints of her career are on this perfectly conceived Mosaic release.