The Yuko Mabuchi Trio – Volume 2 (45rpm 180g LP/RTI Pressing)

Label: Yarlung Records

Michael Fremer’s 100 Recommended All-Analog LP Reissues Worth Owning – Rated 33/100!

180g 45rpm Vinyl LP!
Pressed at RTI!
Special LA & OC Audio Society 25th Anniversary Edition!

The sound quality of this set by a jazz piano trio, recorded live to tape with an AKG C24 stereo tube microphone, reveals all. The sounds of Mabuchi’s piano, Del Atkins’s double bass, and Bobby Breton’s drums is stellar in every way, but especially the piano, an instrument whose sound is very hard to capture convincingly. The overall transparency and sense of three-dimensional space is intense and sensational. And Mabuchi is tremendously talented – this is one audiophile recording in which the talent is commensurate with the sound quality.
-Michael Fremer, Stereophile

Pianist Yuko Mabuchi performs four tunes including a Jazz Medley, Japanese Medley, Sona’s Song and Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas.

The repertoire includes a Jazz Medley featuring Kern’s “All the Things You Are” from the 1939 musical “Very Warm For May” plus Strayhorn’s “Take the ‘A’ Train” heard first in 1941 with Ellington’s band on the radio. Finishing this medley is Strayhorn & Ellington’s Satin Doll which came out in 1953 on Capitol Records.

The Japanese Medley features Hazy Moon (Oborozuki) written by Teiichi Okano in 1914 followed by Cherry Blossom (Sakura) from the 17th Century Edo period, which was originally played on koto to celebrate Hanami, or spring flower viewing during the Tokugawa shogunate. Ending this medley is Hachidai Nakamura’s Look At The Sky, (Ue wo Muite Arukou), nicknamed Sukiyaki in English.

Yuko dedicated this release to the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society, the largest association of audiophiles on the planet, and to the 70th Birthday of Robert H. Levi, Yarlung’s society’s illustrious President and CEO.

Audiophiles and jazz buffs have praised Yuko’s work in myriad publications. Positive Feedback’s Robert H. Levy, posting to Yarlung News, enthuses “Yuko Mabuchi plays the ivories with the touch of an angel and the understanding of an artist many times her young age. She is backed by seasoned musicians with strong drive plus an acute sense of playing with and not over the pianist. This is Yarlung’s third jazz album recorded like you wish all performances were recorded: Listening is just like being there. All that’s missing here is the expensive tickets and sticky floor!”

Features:
• 180g Vinyl
• 45rpm
• Pressed at RTI
• LA & OC Audio Society 25th Anniversary Edition