Yuri Hirota: Magical Moonlight
Yuri Hirota’s album Magical Moonlight was released in 2017 as a petite jazz gallery of some of her favorite songs and original compositions songs. These are played by pianist Hirota with her group,“Quartet Tsukino no Sampo” (月夜の散歩), which roughly translates to The Walk on a Moonlight Night Quartet.
Although this is a slightly older album, Hirota announced recently that this album and her earlier release Flea Circus (2015) were now available on streaming platforms, making this a good time to refresh this short article about the album.
Magical Moonlight is a full release on the shorter side, a quick play-through of eight songs that runs for about 36 minutes. It’s an easy-going affair, a stroll through good old-fashioned sounding jazz. The nostalgia is enhanced by the group’s format, a quartet made up of Hirota on piano, Daisei Mii on violin and viola, Yusuke “Kilin” Sato on bass, and Gen Date on conga/percussion. A fifth musician, guitarist Yuichiro Hiraoka, joins as a special guest on three tracks, adding more close-up tangibility to the group’s grounded sweetness.
The eight songs are arranged by pianist Hirota, and three were composed by her. Overall the songs have a pleasantly throwback feel. Track #1 “Pepe le moko” is a languid start with a Parisian atmosphere that leads to a cute waltz with #2 “Furuhon-ya no Waltz”. #3 “C’est si bon” is that well-known French chanson, and #4 “Doggy Rhumba” is an uptempo rhumba version of Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” (aka “Waltz of the Puppy”).
For track #5, the Japanese min’yō folk song “Tanko Bushi” gets the “Ahmad Jamal ‘Poinciana’” treatment. The old classic #6 “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” is simply cheerful. #7, Hirota’s “Ron Zaca Party” is played like a festive party arising from the wordplay of “Ron Zacapa”, a premium Guatamalan rum. Finally, the last track #8 “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is a sentimental stride piano with a dusty saloon vibe, smoky, sultry, and comfortable.
Liner Notes
(Translated from Yuri Hirota’s original Japanese liner notes.)
Notes on a moonlit walk.
1.Pépé le Moko - Yuri Hirota
A port city in a distant foreign country. A soft serenade can be heard from an alleyway bar. You have a nostalgic scent of Paris about you. I wish we could walk together a little longer. A song from Jean Gabin’s Pépé le Moko, a French classic film that I saw.
2.Furuhon no Waltz (Waltz of the Secondhand Bookstore) - Yuri Hirota
We re-recorded songs from the “Kurofune Lady and the Ginsei Orchestra” [黒船レディと銀星楽団, a swing-pop-retro band that Yuri Hirota was a member of] period as instrumentals.
“That book is still half-read
Left behind, sometime, forgotten on a train
Time flows on
The days of my youth are distant and hazy”
— lyrics Fumi Mizubayashi (Kurofune Lady) from Furuhon-ya no Waltz
3.C’est si bon - Henri Betti
It’s soooo wonderful. It’s chanson.
4.Koinu no Rhumba (Doggy Rhumba) - Frédéric Chopin
I throw a ball and they run at full speed to go snatch it. I love the sound of their nails as they grab at the floor. Of course, the original song is a waltz.
5.Tanko Bushi (Coal-miner’s Song) - Japanese Traditional
An homage to Ahmad Jamal, a pianist I love. It seems as if exotic music and Japanese folk songs are compatible.
6.Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall - Doris Fisher
A great song by The Ink Spots, a chorus group active in the 1930s. As long as we live, there are sure to be some rainy days. It’s just a spring rain… So why not get wet?
7.Ron Zaka Party - Yuri Hirota
Dedicated to the great rum from Guatamala. Drink it, and it’ll make you want to stomp your feet in high spirits.
8.Can’t Take My Eyes off of You — Bob Crewe & Bob Gaudio
A killer tune from the 1980s disco era done with a vaudeville arrangement. Don’t skip the shocking finale!
Magical Moonlight by Yuri Hirota
Yuri Hirota - piano & arrangement
Daisei Mii - violin & viola
Kilin Sato - bass
Gen Date - conga & other percussion
Yuichiro Hiraoka - guitar on #1, 3, 7
Released in 2017 on Malt Oriental as MORI-0003.
Japanese names: 廣田ゆり Hirota Yuri 三井大生 Mii Daisei 佐藤きりん Sato Kilin 伊達弦 Date Gen 平岡遊一郎 Hiraoka Yuichiro
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“Tanko Bushi” (track #5) — excerpt:
The vaudeville arrangement on the disco-era tune is such a clever touch. That kind of genre-blending across decades shows real arragement skill, taking a song from one context and making it work in a completley different aesthetic. The violin-viola-bass-conga quartet format is interesting too, gives it that throwback feel without being a standard piano trio. Reminds me of some Django Reinhardt era Hot Club recordings, same kind of intimate warmth.