Mika Marimba Madness (2010)
Performers: Mika Yoshida, marimba; Steve Gadd, drums; Eddie Gomez, bass; Peter John Stoltzman, piano
PlayList: Jubilation, Rain Dance, Take the “A” Train; The Duke; Mika Suite, Sambata, Caravan, Strength, Street Smart, Spain, Encore: Girlfriend’s Medley
Studio: Big Round Records BR8906 [4/27/10] [Distrib. by Naxos]
Video: 1.77:1 for 16:9 color
Audio: PCM stereo
All regions
Length: 83 minutes
Rating: ****½
An unusual but delightful jazz outing on video. Haven’t heard great jazz marimba like this since hearing Red Norvo live once at the Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society at Halfmoon Bay, CA. The DVD opens with a map showing the part of SW Japan where Mika hails from and where the concert was held at Tamana City, nearby. Like a few Japanese jazz performers, Mika is on the high level that attracts noted American jazz performers to not only appear with her but make recordings together. Steve Gadd is in fact producing her CD which will be out later this year. The excellent young pianist in the quartet is the son of noted clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.
Mika divides her tunes between two mallets and four. She’s lightning-fast and can really swing with the best of them. The Duke is not Dave Brubeck’s homage to Ellington, but Steve Gadd’s, and equally interesting. The 14-minute/3-section Mika Suite is great fun, and pianist Stoltzman’s arrangement of Caravan returns us gracefully to the music of Ellington. For me the highlight of the DVD is the lengthy interpretation of Chick Corea’s wonderful Spain. All four players get to shine on this one and it’s a gem among the many varied interpretations of this tune that have been released. The encore selection opens with a tune that sounds like a player piano or orchestrion tune of the late 1890s (the latter had marimba or xylophone attachments) and has a couple other trad-sounding tunes I could recognize but not name. Sonics are good, but I found Mika’s marimba sounded far clearer on straight stereo playback rather than attempting to achieve a surround field via ProLogic II or DTS Neo 6.
– John Henry
