Miles Okazaki Archive

Miles Okazaki – Trickster [TrackList follows] – Pi Recordings

by Audiophile Audition | Aug 18, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Miles Okazaki – Trickster [TrackList follows] – Pi Recordings P1682, 44:46 [3/24/17] ****: Mythology, magic and folklore help create modern jazz. (Miles Okazaki – guitar, producer; Craig Taborn – piano; Anthony Tidd – bass, mixer; Sean Rickman – drums) Guitarist Miles Okazaki has layers inside of layers inside of layers on his latest outpouring, the 44-minute, nine-track Trickster, his first solo album in five years and his debut on the forward-thinking Pi Recordings. Okazaki may be best known by jazz fans for his stint in Steve Coleman and Five Elements, but he’s also spent time with vocalist Jane Monheit, and had early gigs with Regina Carter, Stanley Turrentine and has credits as a session musician. Okazaki’s newest material is complex and influenced by myriad components, but foremost among them is the socio-cultural theme of the trickster, a folklore figure and ancient archetype who uses mischief and/or magic to rupture or break down taboos, conventions or societal barriers. Tricksters are not what they seem to be, and that makes them ideal as thematic objects for Okazaki’s nine originals. Each composition relates to a separate trickster from various cultures across time, sometimes directly, sometimes less overtly and on occasion hidden within the […]