The most revealing portion of Eri Yumamoto’s new work, the seven-part Goshu Ondo Suite, lies at the beginning of Part III, when the pianist/composer plays alone for three thrilling minutes. In those minutes one hears succinct stepwise motion in the left hand, against fluid improvisation and vivid chords in the right, all leading to a decisive rhythmic motif—the same motif that reappears in strategic spots throughout the piece. In this riveting solo, Yumamoto touches on each of the elements that, when blown up large, make for a radiant concerto.
Yumamoto’s ability to extrapolate a concerto from a snippet of music is the notion behind this extended composition, recorded live at the Paul Taylor Dance Studios in lower Manhattan in November 2018. The new album, on AUM Fidelity Records, marks her twelfth as a leader and her tenth with her longtime trio (bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi)—but her first with a choir.
The snippet that undergirds the composition derives from the gōshū ondo, a traditional dance melody from Shiga, Japan, where Yumamoto summered as a child. Each year in Shiga she would attend the Bon Festival, a song-and-dance-filled celebration of one’s ancestors. To recall the feeling of communal joy the festival inspired, Yumamoto wrote full-voiced melodic lines for the choir—nothing as harmonically dense as a Bach chorale, say, but that’s not the tradition that she’s invoking here.
To execute the choral parts Yumamoto paired up with the Choral Chameleon, a 50-voice choir (Vince Peterson, director). Despite the heft of the chorus, Yamamoto manages to maintain a delicious balance between the vocals and the superbly refined sound of her trio—doubtless a challenge in rehearsal. But by the gospel-tinged finale on the recording what’s left is a nimbly crafted rhapsody of east and west, jazz and folk, singer and player.
Gondo Ondo Suite: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Echo of Echo. (54:47)
Personnel: Eri Yamamoto, piano; David Ambrosio, bass; Ikuo Takeuchi, drums; Choral Chameleon, choir.
Ordering info: www.aumfidelity.com
(Reprinted from January 2020 issue of Downbeat magazine.)