Best of 2019 #43: Miho Hazama – “Dancer in Nowhere”

The compositions of Miho Hazama are a simultaneous view of the colors of a tree’s leaves and the entire forest in which it lives.  Dancer in Nowhere often feels like an epic journey, a sense of an ever-changing landscape that reaches out the horizon and keeps on going.  And, yet, there are so many junctions within the changes where Hazama makes it so damn easy to immerse oneself in a precise moment that its like time stops and every nuance is revealed.  Her ensemble work is Exhibit A in the case of big band jazz having as much impact in the present day upon jazz as it ever has.

Your album personnel:  Miho Hazama (conductor), Steve Wilson (alto & soprano saxophones, flute), Ryoji Ihara (tenor sax, clarinet, flute), Jason Rigby (tenor sax, clarinet), Andrew Gutauskas (baritone sax, bass clarinet), Jonathan Powell (trumpet, flugelhorn), Adam Unsworth (French horn), Tomoko Akaboshi (violin), Sita Chay (violin), Atsuki Yoshida (viola), Meaghan Burke (cello), James Shipp (vibraphone, guiro, shekere), Billy Test (piano), Sam Anning (bass), Jake Goldbas (drums), and guests: Nate Wood (drums), Kavita Shah (vocals), and Lionel Loueke (guitar).

Released on Sunnyside Records.

Music from New York City.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon