CD Review: The Dave Miller Trio, "The Mask-erade is Over"

If you like to listen to a great traditional straight ahead Jazz piano trio playing, Dave Miller's new CD "The Mask-erade is Over" will be perfect for you.  Dave Miller who has his own playing personality can at times remind you of some your favorite Jazz pianists like George Shearing, Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal.  Bill covers a lot of ground in this CD and brings his Jazz personality center stage on a great selection of standards. 

Dave's daughter is the super-talented singer Rebecca DuMaine and Dave and his trio have often recorded with Rebecca on her CDs.  

I have selected two YouTubes videos for your listening pleasure.  The first song is "Be Careful It's My Heart".  Dave was inspired by Peggy Lee's version with one of his Piano heroes, George Shearing.  The second song is a Dave Brubeck gem, "In Your Own Sweet Way".  The playlist of songs on this CD are from a diverse outstanding group of composers:  Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Noel Coward, Irving Berlin and Ray Henderson.   Take a moment to review the fun playlist below.

                                                              "Be Careful It's My Heart"

                                                               "In Your Own Sweet Way"

PLAYLIST:

1. Anthropology

2. Be Careful It's My Heart

3. The Masquerade Is Over

4. The Opener

5. Someday I'll Fine You

6. You Don't Know What Love Is

7. Yardbird Suite

8. Estate

9. In Your Own Sweet Way

10. The Blue Room

11. Dusty

12. Why Did I Choose You

13. Hallucinations

14 Just Imagine

PLAYERS:

Dave Miller- Piano

Andrew Higgins- Bass

Bill Belasco- Drums

 

CD Review: Yoko Miwa Trio, "Songs Of Joy"

 

The Yoko Miwa Trio has released their new CD, "Songs Of Life".  Like all of us, pianist Yoko Miwa found the year 2020 a tough period to live through.  The recording of this album was delayed and her long time home base for performing, Les Zygomates Wine Bar & Bistro in Boston closed its doors for good. Sadly, the pandemic has had the same effect on most musicians.  No place to perform and a lot of Jazz venues closed down forever.  In addition to this bad news, Yoko's father also passed away.  To Yoko's credit she never let these serious roadblocks stop her from continuing her musical creativity. "Once the pandemic started, I decided to write something every day.  I just tried to sit down at the piano and play whatever I felt on that day.  Of course I was frustrated, but I tried to stay positive".  The result of her super positive spirit was the birth of some uplifting emotional and optimistic music that is contained in the five original songs she composed for this CD.

Yoko Miwa plays piano with a Jazz-inspired spontaneity and when it is combined with her classically-trained virtuosity she moves to the top with the list of today's great pianists.   Legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal had this to say about Yoko playing,  "At 90 years plus, I have known and heard most of the great pianists, including Art Tatum, Oscar Dennard, Phhineas Newborn, Nat Cole, Dodo Marmarosa, Johnny Costa, and Erroll Garner.  Yoko is amazing and will continue to grow." 

The Yoko Miwa Trio has been performing together for more than 15 years and consists of Yoko Miwa on Piano, Will Slater on Acoustic Bass and Scott Goulding on Drums.  When this trio plays they seem inspired and produce music sounds that are a joy to hear.  This CD was inspired by Billy Preston's "Song of Joy" "With every note I play, I play with love...With all the happiness this melody brings".

MUSICIANS:

Yoko Miwa- Piano

Will Slater- Acoustic Bass

Scott Goulding- Drums

Brad Barrett- Acoustic Bass-Track 11

PLAYLIST:

1. Freedom

2. Largo Desolato

3. Song of Joy

4. Small Talk

5. The Lonely Hours

6. No Problem

7. The Rainbirds

8. Think of Me

9. Inside A Dream

10. Tony's Blues

11. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

I have attached two "YouTube" songs from the CD for your listening pleasure.  The first is the Billy Preston's tune, "Song of Joy" and the second is a Yoko Miwa original "The Rainbirds". 

                                                                       "Song of Love"

                                                                          "The Rainbirds"