Universal – POCS-1065 – 2012
Chie Shimizu: voice
Hiroki Morihoka: piano, arrangements
Tetsuyuki Kishi: bass
Satoshi Sano: trombone, harmonica
In the crowded plethora of Japanese jazz vocalists deserves a better attention the singer Chie Shimizu. The particular grain of her voice, so distinctive and peculiar, sets her upon the many, often too much edulcorated, voices that fill the Japanese vocal scene, representing an enjoyable exception.
As written in the liner notes by journalist Hiroshi Kawazaki – music critic for authoritative Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, referring to most of Japanese jazz vocalists – «Wouldn’t it be a mistake if in female jazz singers we were only looking for sweetness and lovelyness?»
Indeed, adhering to a vocal aesthetic closer to that of black american singers, Shimizu surprises for an approach so distant from the usual Asian jazz vocal stylisms. Like an autumn sea changing its appearance, according to the angle the sun rays reflect on it, many and iridescent are the nuances in her vocals that sometimes seems to break in pieces enriching itself with the cloudiness of a modern Billie Holiday, yet keeping an underlying innocence that milden the dissolution and disenchantment present in Lady Day’s voice.
Accompanied by an unusual drumless quartet, Shimizu does her best in famous standards like Everything Must Change, Speak Low and Blame it on My Youth, that well suit her dark vocal pronunciation as well as her remarkable skill to enact the sung lyrics.
The lower registers of bass and trombone, often joined by the lunar sound of mouth harmonica, nicely blend with Shimizu’s tones who is always looking for a melting point with the instrumental timbres of her partners. The mood of the session is one of those that only long term collaborators can offer and the instrumental set is assembled to enhance the qualities of each members.
The two sides of polyinstrumentalist Satoshi Sano are displayed alternatively always seeking for the most suitable colors to add to the tunes: playing harmonica on the lively Sunny, My Favorite Things and Everything Must Change or showing the most ironic side of standards like Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose and Lover, Come Back to Me, blowing in his trombone.
Pianist and arranger of all tunes Hiroki Morioka keeps together the threads of the session wisely dispensing pearls of romanticism in the ballads and a dynamic swing in the fastest tracks.
The rhythmic fulcrum is in charge of bassist Tetsuyuki Kishi, always effective and relevant, who shows a talent of good accompanist in Virtual Insanity, a song by famous English vocalist Jamiroquai, performed as a voice and bass duo; a musical choice that reveals the wideness of styles to which the singer is looking at.
Even if Shimizu is not averse to a few raids in pop music (How Far You’ve Gone and Superstar), it’s in the tunes belonging to the most classic tradition of jazz that the singer finds her congenial dimension, displaying a personal vocal style that is the result of a personal journey through her role as a singer that today has reached a good maturity.
Link:
Chie Shimizu – Everything Must Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odklFqW9kY