Kyoko Kuroda - Something Keeps Me Alive (1991)

20 Apr, 01:36
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Artist: Kyoko Kuroda
Title: Something Keeps Me Alive
Year Of Release: 1991
Label: Omba Records [OMBA CD-001]
Genre: Jazz, Free Jazz
Quality: FLAC (tracks + .cue,log)
Total Time: 65:27
Total Size: 222 MB(+3%)
WebSite: Album Preview

Tracklist

01. Bird (Kuroda) - 5:13
02. Ondine (Kuroda) - 6:12
03. Confirmation (Parker) - 2:52
04. Monk's Dream (Monk) - 4:58
05. 'Round Midnight (Monk) - 5:58
06. Guilhon Pren Ton Tamborin (Tolosan) - 3:33
07. Kimagure (Kuroda) - 6:56
08. Senmenki ~ Alone II (Kuroda-Kaneko) - 8:29
09. Baka na Watashi (Kuroda) - 3:04
10. Walking Batterie Woman (C.Bley) - 4:42
11. Reactionary Tango (C.Bley) - 6:11
12. I Feel You (Kuroda) - 7:19

personnel :

Kyoko Kuroda - piano, accordion, voice, small instruments

Improvising instrumentalist Kyoko Kuroda is well known in Japan for her fiery, free improv concerts on the piano, and as a member of numerous free jazz ensembles, but Something Keeps Me Alive features her in a variety of solo contexts in addition to the piano-with-voice, accordion, and small instruments. But this is no anarchy-fest, and Kuroda is a stellar pianist within classical and jazz repertoires, as well as in improvisational ones. Perhaps the most stellar example of her compositional skill is in "Ondine," with its Debussy-esque architecture evoking the "Preludes" -- especially "Preludes 3, 5," and "6," and the middle dream section of "Afternoon of a Faun." She never quotes directly from the French composer, but instead calls forth his harmonic canvas with fugues and extended augmented ninths, and even 12ths! Elsewhere she brings her own language to Charlie Parker's "Confirmation," where the solo lands before the melody of the tune and she turns the melody into a chromatic feast of intervalic modality. On Monk's "'Round Midnight" and "Monk's Dream," she echoes his personality with her own syncopated read of his changes while remaining faithful to the melodic ideas he so cherished. Her slippery finger work in the middle register is lighter than the composer's, but no less idiosyncratic on the angular lines in the turnaround of "Monk's Dream." The former is an emotional, whispered interpretation that floats the minor key theme into a diminished series of sevenths and fifths contrasting the melody with its now compressed harmonic range. On her solo compositions, on accordion, or piano, or with her voice, Kuroda may express emotions ranging from whimsy to grief , and even rage, but never without grace, considerable stylistic invention, and a timing that is dead on. In her excess there is no excess, only economy. Something Keeps Me Alive is a gift from the gifted.~Thom Jurek

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