Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio

Sometime July 11, 2023

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto山本 剛 – piano

Hiroshi Kagawa香川 裕史— bass

Rena Toshimitsu利光 玲奈 — drums, vocals

This pristine piano trio had plenty of lead sheets on the music stand when they took the stage in the center of Sometime but I didn’t really see them even glance at them. They didn’t need to. Once Yamamoto got the trio swinging, the music took over, and the songs were less important than the pumping of the jazz piano trio engine.

 There was no point even announcing the songs, either. Yamamoto’s intros opened up the harmonic structures to let the melodic lines flow before the songs even got underway. The thoughtful, deliberate intros each time served as a sort of stretching out before the songs took off.

The tunes were mostly standards, but like with all great pianists, the song hardly matters. Whether scavenging the complex inner harmonies of “These Foolish Things” or playing with the rhythm of “I Got Rhythm,” the fun came after the melody was through and Yamamoto started taking it his way.

Kagawa on bass always adds a special touch. His tight, punchy style accented Yamamoto’s twists and turns just right. And he helped turn “Satin Doll” into a groovy, almost-funky romp. Toshimitsu on drums played with a delicacy of touch, and lots of cymbal work, to add another layer—or two or three—to the total sound. She played harder when called on and helped drive Yamamoto to keep going.

Toshimitsu kicked off the second set with two vocal tunes, “They All Laughed” and “The Nearness of You,” the latter a bluesy delight, and left the crowd ready for more of her vocals, then or in the future. Her vocals are worth waiting for.

Back to trio format, “The Look of Love” was slow, pensive, and sexy, but edged into a driving take-out that no one wanted to finish. “Misty” and “Girl from Ipanema” were both pinned open and explored with great fluidity. Yamamoto’s way of working a tune is intelligent, but only in a way that you figure out later. At first, it just sounds great.

Yamamoto’s trio delivers on the promise of jazz, to make the songs better than themselves. He does that by drawing on experience and tapping into musical insight without losing the deep feeling. Some pianists are born to never hit a wrong note, but to do that with endless feeling and an endless sense of possibility is something special.