Joh Yamada Quartet
Jazz Dining B Flat August 13, 2024
Joh Yamada山田穣 - alto sax, soprano sax
Akane Matsumoto松本茜 - piano
Satsuki Kusui 楠井五月 - bass
Shunsuke Umino海野俊輔 – drums
Joh Yamada has long been one of my favorite musicians, but he came out swinging for this evening of great music, kicking off with the hard-driving “First Step.” It was the night's only original, though Yamada and the band made it sound like a standard. With neat changes and incredible solos, the hard blues-bop number not only warmed up—it heated up—the quartet and audience alike.
Some quartets fit together, and others set up tension, but this quartet did both. Everyone stayed where they should be, but they crossed over at the right times, shoring up harmonies, shredding lead lines, juicing up the rhythms. On “Eighty One,” a classic Miles Davis number, they laid back into a calmer vibe, as Miles himself might have done, but they each added touches to the others that made the cross-pollination compelling.
The classic tunes “It’s Only a Paper Moon” and “My Old Flame” were played as the classic standards they are, but not left there. Yamada took the first solo, as he did on all the evening’s tunes, but he raised the bar high each time, playing with intensity and energy. The other players, Matsumoto especially, rose to the bar like Olympic high jumpers. Matsumoto played sensitively on these more ballad-like numbers, with her solos both lyrical and forceful.
“My Shining Hour” closed out the first set. It’s a tune covered by John Coltrane early in his career, and Yamada found a nice blend of early Coltrane and late to make this song fly. The quartet cranked down on this to deliver a great closer that left the audience wanting more. Kusui and Umino were locked together by this point, each driving the energy forward as one.
After a short break, the second set opened up with “Nature Boy,” taken at a quicker-than-usual tempo. Everyone poured energy into the start of the second set, and the reflective solos were buoyant and robust. “I’ve Never Been in Love Before” was played as a ballad with a rollicking feel. That let Matsumoto and Kusui show off the delicate control over their instruments. Yamada brought the song to a close with another solo that showed off his magnificent tone on sax.
“Star-Crossed Lovers” was, in some ways, the highlight of the second set. It’s a lyrical tune that Duke Ellington wrote in honor of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The quartet focused on beautiful, melodic lines. Matsumoto clearly had a strong feeling for the song and pulled out a marvelous solo. Yamada used time and technique to find subtleties and nuances and to make a lovely tune even lovelier.
The set's last song, “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” was anything but. They cranked the song into high gear and played it at a ferocious pace with fluid, open lines and a lot of energy. That worked marvelously. After great solos all around, the song closed out with an intense back-and-forth duo with just Umino on drums and Yamada on soprano. It was a unique, new take on the standard, just as the others had been.
Yamada’s take on post-bop style is to bend and push while still pleasing and innovating on each song, all in equal measures. And yet, Yamada plays with his own unique blend of jazz styles. The quartet delivered two sets of great jazz that left the audience wanting two—at least—more.
