Miho Hazama: Dancer in Nowhere
Sunnyside

One of the key challenges a big band composer faces involves providing a forum for individual soloists while at the same time ensuring that a distinctive writing voice is established. Tokyo native, arranger, and conductor Miho Hazama meets said challenges terrifically on Dancer in Nowhere, the third release by her thirteen-piece m_unit and the follow-up to 2013's debut Journey to Journey and 2015's Time River. A Manhattan School of Music graduate, the New York-based Hazama's established herself as one of the leading figures in the big band scene, and her latest spellbinding set will only add to that reputation.

Featuring performances of seven Hazama originals (and one by John Williams), Dancer in Nowhere impresses on multiple levels: the material encompasses a wide range of moods and styles, multiple players are ceded solo spotlights, and the collective's playing is inspired and engaged. Hazama fashions meticulously conceived compositions that advance briskly through numerous episodes and constantly surprise the listener with the paths taken, and as the album's kaleidoscopic material illustrates, she's deeply attuned to the many colours her woodwinds, strings, horns, and rhythm section have to offer. Whereas another arranger might accentuate one section in particular (the saxophonists, for example), Hazama takes advantage of the plenitude available by distributing attention to all members, the result pieces that are as much chamber orchestra productions as jazz ensemble performances.

The generally dynamic Dancer in Nowhere eases the listener in gently with “Today, Not Today,” Ryoji Ihara's clarinet riding a laidback, syncopated groove until the music blossoms; a muted turn by trumpeter Jonathan Powell points the music in a languorous direction before a vibes solo by James Shipp enlivens the performance, and with m_unit working its way through the piece's many twists and turns, the amount of detail Hazama's packs into the piece proves breathtaking. Acoustic bassist Sam Anning then inaugurates “The Cyclic Number” with a rather Mingus-like solo, his assertive pulse setting the stage for a soaring, high-velocity attack that exudes Cuban and Latin flavours during its urgent charge. As happens throughout the disc, solos organically emerge from the arrangement, in this case viola, tenor sax, and drum turns by Atsugi Yoshida, Ihara, and Jake Goldbas, respectively.

Perhaps the album's most remarkable creation is “Somnambulant,” a richly detailed jazz orchestra setting that won Hazama the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize in the 2015 BMI Jazz Workshop. With Jason Rigby (tenor sax, clarinet) and Lionel Loueke (electric guitar) guesting, the piece follows a transfixing intro featuring wordless vocals by Kavita Shah with a chorale-like fanfare before a ballad sequence sees Rigby channeling Joe Henderson and, eventually, Loueke adding rock flavour with a blues-drenched solo. An incredible wealth of colours and moods is expressed by the ensemble during the piece's ten minutes, the sophisticated production on par with one by Maria Schneider.

With Goldbas a powerful prod, Steve Wilson's alto sax jumpstarts “Il Paradiso del Blues” before the full band enters, the music again veering into Latin-swing territory; Andrew Gutauskas also makes his presence felt with a hard-grooving baritone sax solo in between agile contributions from a relentlessly soaring Wilson. In her cover of Williams' 1984 “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” Hazama's careful to render the original's many parts into cohesive form; indicative of just how strong her artistic voice is, “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” ends up sounding more like a Hazama original than interpretation. On the closing title track, Rigby returns, with this time Kneebody's Nate Wood subbing for Goldbas (the tune apparently written with Wood in mind) and the ensemble initially showcasing a sultry, mellifluous side before an acceleration in tempo poses harmonic and rhythmic challenges the musicians handle with assurance.

May 2019