Mari Koga “Perfect Blue”

(Mari Koga/DISKUNION JAZZ 2015)
Mari Koga—vocals
Chiemi Nakai—piano & keyboards
Willie Ruiz--bongo, congas, bell, coros
And many others…
古賀マリ “パーフェクトブルー”
(Mari Koga/DISKUNION JAZZ 2015)

Pitch-perfect and beat-perfect Latin jazz is rare, but increasingly being taken up as a life work by musicians not from Latin countries. One of those is Mari Koga, a marvelous vocalist and bandleader born in Osaka, but relocated to New York for the music. On her first full recording, her vocals are dynamic, soaring and so powerful you would think she was born in Havana.

Invitation opens with a rollicking Afro-Cuban beat, which gives Koga’s voice enough room to soar above the tight rhythmic structure. She scats marvelously over the beat, and steps aside to let every jam. This is New York Latin music at its finest. On every song, the band swings hard, moving between different clave and styles, dropping comfortably into a rhumba in the middle of a song, and then shifting to Latin jazz, and then taking off again wherever they like. All the while, the fifteen-plus musicians keep the music flowing like lava.“Azul,” an original with friend and keyboardist, Chiemi Nakai, another Japanese-born jazz and Latin music lover transplanted to New York, is especially well done. It is from this song that the album’s title, “Perfect Blue” comes. Koga and Nakai have found the perfect blue on this recording. With three covers amongst the eight tracks, Koga and Nakai show their talent for writing lyrics and music, respectively.

Marvelously well recorded and produced, the sound quality shows the attention to detail that runs through all the arrangements and playing. Koga and Nakai have assembled an amazing ensemble here, especially with producer and conga-player Willie Ruiz. The band digs into clave with abandon, and support Koga’s vocals with a range of Latin rhythms and big band tones, all of them full, lush and painstakingly perfect.“I Got Rhythm” is great fun, never sounding better than with a full set of horns pumping behind and Koga’s relaxed, sexy and savvy take. She has a lot more than just rhythm going on in this track! The ballads bring down the heat into a smoldering swing that is blue in another sense altogether.

Koga’s vocals are at the very center of the sound, with Nakai’s piano right there spurring her on. They create dynamic and gorgeous music, made with equal parts beauty and energy. Talk about “womenomics”--this is women-musics! “Perfect Blue” is an excellent CD that belongs on any Japanese jazz lover’s, and any Latin music lover’s shelf. But of course, it’s unlikely to stay on the shelf for long; it’s more likely to stay in the player!