Album Review by Jason Gross on The New York City Jazz Record; December 2024 Issue

Coming to New York city from Osaka 30 years ago, pianist-composer eri Yamamoto has become a NYCmainstay, not only releasing over a dozen albums as a leader, but also impressively collaborating with a number of downtown jazz legends, not to mention her work as an educator. recently, she artistically confronted her own identity and cOVID-enforced isolation with the outstanding A Woman With A Purple Wig (2022). As something of a continuation on that identity theme (as seen in the cover graphic), her latest release, Fly With the Wings features an arresting new quartet with chad Fowler (alto, flute), Kevin Thomas (bass) and Ikuo Takeuchi (drums).

The relaxed groove on the album opener “What Do They Mean” has the leader adding smoky vocals which are not as mannered as previously sung, though perhaps not as striking as on 2022’s luminous “Colors Are Beautiful”. The wailing opening solo by Fowler (who previously played with Yamamoto, as well as William Parker, in the Sparks improv ensemble) immediately adds heft to the song. The title track begins with the pianist’s graceful playing, which nicely intertwines with Fowler’s flute and then tails off into a flighty solo mid-way through, punctuated by the percussion of decades-long Yamamoto collaborator Takeuchi. “Peach” shifts the mood into a solemn, reflective space that harkens back to bill evans, with Thomas adding a graceful bass solo. “cheer me Up” does just what it says, with its inherently much more upbeat spirit, buoyed by the drummer’s fluid playing, leading to a raucous, honking Fowler solo. In yet another head-spinning emotional shift, the forlorn “Where To Go” has the leader in a yearning, desperate frame of mind over lost love, building to an emotional climax near the end, with Fowler’s saxophone statements echoing her despair. Then in yet another dynamic shift, “Let’s Do It”, which serves as the album’s conclusion, rides on a funky beat. Yamamoto is heard on melodica (on which she is an eccentric virtuoso) with Fowler joyously harmonizing and then duking it out. While Fly With the Wings isn’t quite as ambitious as 2019’s Goshu Ondo Suite (with choir) or 2022’s Yellow Flower (a solo piano release), its stunning mood swings makes for a memorable ride, nonetheless.

 Album Review by John Sharpe on The New York City Jazz Record; June 2024 Issue

'Colors of the Night' was chosen for their Recommended New Release.

Although NYC-based Japanese pianist Eri Yamamoto often presents an elegant and soulful take on tradition via the medium of her songs, she is equally at home in the company of adventurers such as reedman/trumpeter Daniel Carter and bassist William Parker. Indeed, she can claim tenure in the latter’s Raining on the Moon ensemble ever since her appearance on 2008’s Corn Meal Dance (AUM Fidelity). She skillfully combines these two approaches of tradition and exploration on the pair of releases at hand, improvising freely without ever becoming unmoored for long from either melody or rhythm. The pianist showcases a special band on the 2022 live recording, Colors of the Night. Alongside drummer Ikuo Takeuchi, ever-present in her regular trio since its debut in 2001, she enlists Parker’s rock-solid yet wonderfully supple bass playing. On four freewheeling numbers, the pianist’s talent for crafting bittersweet tunes is well in evidence, most notably on the opening title track. She begins each cut with a similarly well-turned kernel before the three embark on a stream of engaging variations marked by their group-orientated focus and seamless dynamic shifts. Parker endlessly cycles through angular shapes, always seeming on the verge of pivoting into a deep groove, but never quite yielding to the temptation, while Takeuchi offers a pulsating but understated metric carpet that comments as much as it colors. Yamamoto’s alluring blues-infused figures periodically surface to ground the interplay throughout. On “Passion”, Parker’s muscular pizzicato motifs sculpt a superstructure around which the pianist places her forceful chording to dramatic effect, while the concluding “El Sol”, a bright yet wistful caper that first featured on her solo Yellow Flower (Blau Records), builds to a rhapsodic climax, one in no way diminished when the bassist unholsters his bow for some moaning lines that underscore the ambivalent feel.

Yamamoto also comprises one quarter of the co-operative Sparks Quartet, which is captured in full flow on Live at the Vision Festival XXVI. The outfit’s performance at the 2022 edition followed its debut (recorded the previous year) with an unchanged line up completed by Parker, Chad Fowler (reedman and Mahakala label boss) and Steve Hirsh (drums). On two cuts the foursome trades in an especially harmonious form of spontaneous interaction, Yamamoto noticeably enjoying a particular connection with both Parker and Fowler. Her naturally rhythmic style meshes well with the bassist’s effortlessly propulsive patterns, while Fowler often picks up and elaborates from the pianist’s phrases, whether in an enveloping vibrato or an emotion laden wail. Meanwhile, Hirsh avoids closing down any option with a multifaceted rattle, which is potent but never overbearing. As adept at off-the-cuff melody as the pianist, Fowler lends a ballad-like quality to the beginning of “Part One”, while on flute his atmospheric invocation opens “Part Two” into another spellbinding journey. Later in the same piece you can almost hear the real time negotiation, whether to prolong Yamamoto’s earthy lope or transition to something more fragmented and restless. The tension as the quartet moves back and forward between these two modes lay the process of creation bare.

Pianist Eri Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan, but she has been a resident of New York City for over twenty years. She was there in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the world and then-President Trump began to call the disease a "Chinese flu." One day, while waiting to start an outdoor concert, she was confronted by a stranger who knocked off her hat, stepped on the electric keyboard she was carrying and called her one of the "(bleeping) Chinese" who had "messed up the world." 

She played her concert that day but became so traumatized by the incident that for two years she only went out once a month. When she did, she used a face mask, sunglasses, a hat, and a purple wig to completely conceal her Asian identity. That experience is the story behind the title track of this album. Yamamoto sings in a disarmingly natural voice about buying the wig and how her disguise gave her a feeling of invisibility and safety as her trio's music sways along in an impishly tumbling swing behind her. She sounds vulnerable but at the same time, strong and defiant, feelings summed up in the way she sings the words of the chorus: "I'm just a woman. / Don't hurt me. / Don't hurt me." 

Yamamoto also sings on one other track of the album, "Colors Are Beautiful." On the surface, this is a quietly dignified song about the range of colors found in nature, but it easily could mean the beauty of the different skin colors and races found in this world. The other five tracks here are instrumentals, capturing the intricate interplay between the leader's piano and the work of the other long-time members of her trio, bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi. They softly roll together like a Paul Bley trio on the elastic rustle of "Sounds of Peace," and playfully skip around like one of Ahmad Jamal's groups on "Shout." On "Internal Beat" the swaying rumble of Ambrosio's bass and the restless pattering of Takeuchi's drums make a fine backdrop that allows Yamamoto to fly about and swirl through variations on a fragment of Charles Mingus' "Haitian Fight Song." 

The entire album is excellent with the trio in superb form but what lingers in the mind here is the unguarded honesty and determined calm of Eri Yamamoto's voice as she sings the title song, a moving rebuttal to the anger and strife of recent years. This album is something special, the finest work of her career to date. 

—Jerome Wilson

Pianist/composer Eri Yamamoto shares her experience of life in locked-down New York City following the onset of COVID-19 via seven new, heartfelt original compositions. A Woman With a Purple Wig is also her seventh album with her longstanding trio featuring bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi.

4 Star All About Jazz Review of the album, Goshu Ondo Suite  December, 2019

Hot House Jazz Magazine  -Cover & Artist Feature-  November 2018   

Downbeat Magazine September 2013 issue 

Time Out New York Magazine, April 2012 issue  Live Preview