Euphoria

Chronique

Pianist and composer Keiko Matsui has been making records since 1991. It somehow seems surpising that Euphoria is her 30th album. Matsui makes music that embraces and balances tradition, modernity and the contemporary in jazz, classical and pop. She is relentless in adding harmonic and rhythmic invention and imagination to virtually everything she does, yet keeps her music (mostly) readily accessible. Euphoria is no exception. Conceptually, she focuses on music's inherent potential to deepen human experience. With her her studio and road bands, and co-producer Bud Harner, she worked at Hollywood's Studio A, while her guests added their individual parts in studios across the country.
Opener "Steps on the Globe" juxtaposes big band horns, contemporary jazz piano and a Rhodes (by arranger Ron Pedley) with lithe funk thanks to some killer guitar vamping. The swing quotient is high thanks to a horn section soaring above the groove. Guitarist Mike Stern assists on "The Choice." He tracks Matsui's knotty vamp and rides above Alex Al's rubbery bass line as drummer Greg Bisonette drives them all. Funk meets elegant contemporasy fusion, with brief solos by the principal and guitarist. Trumpeter Randy Brecker appears on "Neo." Piano, bubbling percussion and bass grooves deliver the vamp before Pedley's Rhodes colors the body. Brecker enters unhurriedly playing and improvising on the melody. The conversation he shares with Matsui as the tune ratchets is a set highlight. Immediately following is single "Love and Nothing Less" featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway and harmoncist Gregoire Maret. It's a silvery, tender ballad, rife with intimate atmosphere, simmering passion and grace. The interplay between singer, pianist, and harmonicist, is seamless. The third consecutive guest spot belongs to contemporary jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum on "Luminescence." Soulful horns, sweeping piano, organ and Rhodes, gather the groove intensity; it's the perfect vehicle for Whalum's tenor solo before trading canny fours with Matsui's hard bopping blues. "Rosso Cantabile" featuring percussionist Luis Conte balances tradtional tango with Astor Piazzolla'sa tango neuvo, atop brooding groove jazz and classical strings in the set's most dramatic track. "Legend of Yagauron," is fingerpopping, contemporary, Latin-tinged jazz that showcases dazzling interplay between Matsui, Conte, and flutist Brandon Fields, whose Dave Valentin-esque solos are breathtaking. Vibraphonist Joel Ross guests on the dramatic title track. Introduced by strings and piano stating the theme, its rhythmic pulses --on drums and percussion instruments -- are syncopated, shifting change time signatures with startling regularity. Ross initially paints the changes while Matsui appends and extrapolates her harmonic reach on the melody, before Ross grounds it in blues in his killer solo. Buoyed by Michael Thompson's electric guitar and arranger John Beasley's synth, Matsui grabs Ross's blues and builds on them, psuhing the harmony toward the transcendent. In Matsui's vast discography, Euphoria stands apart for its edifying compositions, musical diversity, and careful, yet seamless integration of musicians and themes.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo