The piano and cello duo Arco released Live at Yoncha in 2018, a performance recorded at a live music cafe bar in Tokyo. With six songs running 36 minutes, the set captures the feeling of being there as the two musicians blend jazz, classical, rock, Latin, and Japanese sensibilities.

At live events, Arco’s magnetic charm never fails to rouse the crowd with their thought-out arrangements of touching music with irresistible good cheer. The duo connects with talent and pure sentiment, folding chords and melodies with deep feeling through classical/pop hybrids and moments of freewheeling fun.

While the music is based on piano and cello, the duo does occasionally add surprises and extra effects using hand percussion, melodion keyboard, cello bow chops, and deep thumps and slaps on the cello’s wooden body.

On Live At Yoncha, the set kicks off with an original tune, the fiery “Fiesta”, followed by an elegantly reworked “Pachelbel’s Canon”, Eric Clapton’s “Change The World”, the fascinating and dramatic “Libertango”, and closes with two more originals: Mayumi Sano’s “Elegy” is an emotional ballad with wonderfully heavy long cello notes, while Sayaka Kishi’s “Dai Ni No Furusato” is a charming pop ballad with a flowery sweetness.

Live At Yoncha by Arco

• Sayaka Kishi - piano, melodion
• Mayumi Sano - cello

Released in 2018 on Arco as handmade compact discs.

Japanese names: 岸淑香 Kishi Sayaka 佐野まゆみ Sano Mayumi

Audio and Video

• Video from a live Arco performance:

• Excerpt from track #4: “Libertango”

Jazz of Japan #134 • Mar 22, 2021 • Brian McCrory