Yako Horikita: Shining Hour
Yako Horikita: Shining Hour
Jazz of Japan #86 • Dec 6, 2019 • Brian McCrory
Fans of vintage vocal jazz will be drawn to singer Yako Horikita’s debut album Shining Hour, a swinging collection of twelve jazz standards delivered with a shining, sparking sincerity.
Singing along with a piano trio plus saxophone, Horikita picks winners from the classic jazz songbook with tunes including “Nice Work If You Can Get It”, “Falling In Love With Love”, and “Under A Blanket Of Blue”. Horikita’s voice, a pleasant mix of deep huskiness with a light delicate touch, is confident, friendly, and warm, fitting perfectly with her jazz combo’s solid performance.
While most of the tracks are straightforward mid-tempo swingers, a few of tunes offer variations with bossa and ballads on “When Sunny Gets Blue”, “Second Love”, and the album closer, a sweetly nostalgic “Over The Rainbow”.
Shining Hour by Yako Horikita
- Yako Horikita - vocal
- Takenori Sawaki - alto saxophone
- Makoto Deguchi - piano
- Ken Kaneko - bass
- Nobuhiko Yamashita - drums
Released in 2017 on Kylym Records as KYLYM-0001.
Japanese names: Yako Horikita 堀北やこ Takenori Sawaki 佐脇武則 Makoto Deguchi 出口誠 Ken Kaneko 金子健 Nobuhiko Yamashita 山下暢彦
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