The seven songs included on this album are modern sounding with straight-beat and brushed swing feels. Most songs are in the 9- to 12-minute range, and there is plenty of space for the soloists to explore their improvisations and raise the thrill levels (or deepen the mistique, as the case may be) while the trio propels forward as a group. Most of the solos here feature Yanagihara on piano and Ito on bass, but drummer Kimura also gets a few spots where he trades measures with the pianist or plays dynamic drum solos over rhythmic vamps. This trio is well-suited to one another, tightly-locked and exciting, and the energy of performing live is a visceral force present in their playing.

Wrapping up the live set is track #7, Ito’s “Hinageshi” with a beautiful melody that also appears on some of her other albums: Retattanni no Mori (for solo bass), and Shiro o Matoeba (“Koto Ha, To” vocal/piano/bass).

Semendo Sementes was recorded live in 2021 at the Tokyo jazz club Plus Eleven in Ageo. Included below are videos of the making of this album and the trio’s concerts at Plus Eleven.

Audio and Video

• Promotional video for Semendo Sementes from Yuki Ito Trio:

• “Snow Goose” - track #5:

• “ひなげし (Hinageshi)” - track #7:

• Full playlist (YouTube)

• Excerpt from track #1: “Aderante”

This is her twelfth album spanning those many years, but her prior album Solo was released in 2018 so it’s been several years between that and this 2024 work. In her online notes for this album, she explains how the unsteady times for musicians during the coronavirus period sparked a period of reflection on her Tokyo-based musical life and introspection about her next musical statement. For this project, she choose nine new songs she had written during that period, and settled on the musical partners she would bring this new record to life with. The process involved thinking back over those formative years spent with these and other co-musicians, and especially her hometown of Kobe where it all began.

The songs are all originals by maiko, with one song co-written with Aya Kurosawa. Tied to the album’s theme, there is a sense of reflection overall, with a depth of feeling that could even be called a gentle moodiness to much of the music. Moodiness is not the best description as it’s not of a gloomy quality, but of a deeply connected awareness to the changes that time and situation bring, with both longing and hope in the memories.

The first half of the album ranges through maiko’s violin arranged with different combinations of duos and trios to paint images of haziness (“Mirage”), wisps of breeze (“Windmill”), and peaceable jauntiness (“Migratory Bird”). Track #4 “Futo,” features the duo of maiko on violin and Aya Kurosawa on piano and vocals unwinding an emotional ballad, a piece followed by the spinning complexity of “Rotating Sphere” where the ten strings of violin and guitar conjure up something exciting and mysterious.

From here, the album’s emotional directions turns further inward with slow to medium songs that embody the images conveyed by their titles: “Remininscence”, “Toi Kioku (Distant Memories)”, “Far away”, and “kiteki” all breathe with the feeling of nostalgic remembering and reflecting. As a final piece performed bravely alone and with a huge presence, Maiko plays track #9 “kiteki” as a violin solo, a heartfelt tribute to memories of her hometown shared intimately with her listeners.

Album Notes

(Translated from maiko’s online liner notes for this album.)

01.Mirage

A song created out of the pattern in the introduction. Feeling the haziness of a mirage, I wrote this song with the desire to express that sense of temperature and texture. Recorded as a trio of violin, piano, and bass, with guitar layered in.

02.Windmill

A song to represent something ever-turning and the wind. In the end, the image is one of wind power generation more than a windmill. Recorded with violin, piano, and voice.

03.Migratory Bird

This is a song I wrote for the trio with Shikou (piano) and Yuki (bass). I was inspired by Shikou Ito’s song “啼く鳥を探して” (Search for Singing Birds). This song developed through live performances, so this take is filled with that sense of playing a live concert.

04.ふと、 (Suddenly,)

Aya (piano/voice/vocals) and I wrote this song together. Initially I wrote a rough sketch of the song, and after that, Aya added poetry to the music. Aya and I started in May and continued with the season, a backdrop that is depicted in the music.

05.Rotating Sphere

A song I wrote for the duo with Kazuma (guitar). I was inspired by Kazuma’s song “Particle Dance”. As two different phrases ring out simultaneously like turning circles.

06.Reminiscence

This is a song I wrote when 20 years had passed since I came to Tokyo. It reflects back on the events that occurred during all that time and is filled with hope for the future.

07.遠い記憶 (Distant Memories)

The impression of pulling in memories from long ago. The duo with Shikou is two parts of a whole, recorded with the same sense of the wavering of time.

08.Far away

While thinking fondly of someplace remote, something far away…

09.kiteki (Steam Whistle)

This is a song that was originally expanded from a motif that was born during a violin improvisation solo concert. There is the sound of a boat’s steam whistle somewhere in my memories. I recorded this song at the end of this album as I thought about my hometown.

Liner Notes

(Translated from Aya Kurosawa’s lyrics for track #4 “ふと、 (Suddenly,)” printed on the CD cover.)

Suddenly, (lyrics: Aya Kurosawa)

May’s chilly spring weather, suddenly, overlapping
As if guided by a single melody
Forward in time

Until these flowers bloom, let’s walk together
Until this pain is gone
Just like this
The color of tomorrow’s sky… no one knows
Blurred, dimmed, tied together

September’s swift winds, suddenly, hearts race
Like holding hands for the first time
Heartbeats resonate

Until the blue night is gone, I want to be together
Until this prayer comes to an end, just like this
The color of tomorrow’s sky is someone’s
Confirming our linked memories

February’s snow flurries, suddenly, burst forth

Obi Notes

Arriving somewhere warm
And the journey continues

maiko’s 25th anniversary album!

This album was created upon a foundation of the many encounters that have shaped her musical perspective, and maiko’s own now-established personal style. It’s a gem-filled collection packed with maiko’s musical life itself.

Audio and Video

• Excerpts from “Mirage” (track #1), “Windmill” (track #2), and “Rotating Sphere” (track #5):

• “Reminiscence” (track #6) - excerpt:

• “Mirage” - live performance (track #1):

• “Windmill” - live performance (track #2):

• “Migratory Bird” - live performance (track #3):

• ふと、(Futo,) - live performance (track #4):

• “Rotating Sphere” - live performance (track #5):

• “Reminiscence” - live performance (track #6):

• “遠い記憶” (Toui Kioku) - live performance (track #7):

• “Far Away” - live performance (track #8):

• Behind the scenes: Recording “Far away” (track #8):

• Excerpt from track #1: “Mirage”

To begin, a quick overview of the Japanese words in the band name and album title gives a nice first impression of the phrases, poetically vague as they may be. A translation of their band name (ことは、と in Japanese) would be something like “The Thing Is, …” or “About That, …”, and the album title (白をまとえば) something like When/If I Wear White.

Shiro o Matoeba includes eight beautifully delicate songs, all originals with music written by the three musicians individually. All lyrics were written by vocalist Tsuchiya and are sung in Japanese, except for the two tracks #5 “Vocalise” and #6 “Flower” which Tsuchiya sings in wordless vocalization using her voice as an instrument along with the piano and bass.

The album sequencing is also artful, as the opening and closing tracks (#1 “Shiro o Matoeba” and #8 “Dialog”) act as the album’s prologue and epilogue with storytelling timing and decorative musical structures folded like origami. Along the same lines, track #4 “Maware” (まわれ, turn) features a spoken-word recitation over musical loops and appears in the middle of the album as an intermission of poetry and music.

Bracketed by these three pieces, the rest of the songs find the three musicians playing in a more straightforward and jazzy style. #2 “Selene’s Dance” is a highlight with its romantic and mysterious atmosphere depicting the drama of Selene. This Greek goddess of the moon had her lover Endymion placed in eternal sleep, and eternal youth, out of love, and visited him each night. Compellingly, the tune initially seems to share certain characteristics with other great songs—Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Film)” and Chopin’s “Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4”—but “Selene’s Dance” moves along at a brisk pace with the spice of 5/4 time and additional well-placed beats of punctuation.

Other songs are just as evocative and moving. Track #3 “Higenashi” (ひなげし, poppy) is a pretty waltz with a fragile lightness obscuring a weighty past love as Tsuchiya’s high-reaching vocals express a vulnerable sweetness brilliantly. #5 “Vocalize” is a crafted jazz sculpture with an almost operatic melody and space for bass and piano jazz improvisations. #6 “Flower” opens into a slowly sad, Latin mood with pop lovesong fringes. #7 “Muchu Sampo” (夢中散歩, wandering in a dream) is another odd-meter addiction where striking chords angle over plumb bass notes with coordinated accents over shifting sands.

Speaking of odd-meter, the use of non-4/4 time signatures on Shiro o Matoeba adds to the overall allure of the Koto ha, To’s music. Additional measures, mixed meters, and asymmetrical phrases are carefully inserted in the written scores in several places. Along with the charm of the three dramatic rubato and stop-start pieces, over half of the songs feature non-4/4/ meters (3/4, 5/4, and 7/4) with extra measures or beats used subtly to adorn specific points in the delivery.

Lyrics

(Lyrics transcribed from the liner notes, with English translations by me)

1. 白をまとえば when i wear white

Lyrics: Ayako Tsuchiya Music: Kozue Tsukayama

白をまとえば when i wear white

苛立つ風は優しく gentle, restless wind

冷たい水は甘温く sweetly mild, cool water

流した涙は flowing tears

さらさらと smoothly

さらさらと smoothly

わたしに自然に融けてゆく melt naturally into me

さびしく人をもとむ日も on days i’m lonely, desiring another

白をまとえば when i wear white

白をまとえば when i wear white

震えた樹々に隠れて hide in the trembling trees

血汐は緩く湧き上る blood slowly rises

抱えた痛みは carried pain

ひたひたと slowly

ひたひたと slowly

わたしに自然に融けてゆく melts naturally into me

はげしく日とを想う日も on days i think intensely of the past

白をまとえば when i wear white

2. Selene’s dance

Lyrics: Ayako Tsuchiya Music: Yuki Ito

なぞる指でそっと閉じる瞼 fingers trace and gently close eyes

濡れた口に甘い媚薬を sweet aphrodisiac on moistened mouth

しどけない貴方にかけた魔法で by a spell cast on innocent you

綺麗なまま永遠に remain beautiful forever

解けることなく never lifted

夢をみせ続けてあげる i’ll keep you dreaming

眩しい光に身を委ねて yield to the dazzling light

溶けてゆくよに愛を誓って、と melting away, pledging love -

虚ろな瞳に願ってみても try to beg of vacant eyes

無駄ね it’s hopeless

朝が来る頃に when morning comes

銀の船は呼ぶ the silver vessel calls

また夜を待つだけ just wait for night again

冷たい胸に燃えた火花 burnt spark in my cold heart

望みは一つ今日も誓って？ one wish, promise me again today?

穏やかに空は限りの時を告げるの calm sky marks the time’s end

香り染み付けて soaked-in scent

髪引かれながら as hair is pulled

また夜を待つだけ just waiting for night again

3. ひげなし

Lyrics: Ayako Tsuchiya Music: Yuki Ito

頬を撫でた　五月の風 a may wind caressed my cheeks

青い匂いが　抑えにきた scent of youth came to restrain me

可愛い夢　並べれたね we arranged cute dreams, didn’t we

叶いもしないこと things that could never come true

隠してたのは what i was hiding

知ってたから because i knew

胸に咲いた　花は見せなかった unrevealed flowers bloomed in my heart

目と目が合う　君が笑う our eyes meet, you smile

丘を駆け上がれば　街は遠くへ run up the hill and the town fades away

陽の光に　紛れ込んで mixed in the sunlight

もろい幻　拾った i grasped a delicate vision

指先から　流れてゆく slipping from my fingertips

君の優しいとこ your gentle side

懐かしいね、と ‘i miss you’

寂しかった、と ‘i felt lonely’

ポケットの中でぎゅっと伝えた i let you know, tight in my pocket

目と目が合う　君が笑う our eyes meet, you smile

丘を駆け上がれば　街は遠くへ run up the hill and the town fades away

4. まわれ

Lyrics: Ayako Tsuchiya Music: Yuki Ito

握りしめていたははずの熱は heat i should have tightly held

トウニ、ワタシカラハナレ ‘long ago, left me’

貴女の方へ、漂っていた towards you, it drifted

鈍い瞬き a dull blink

乾いて刻む、針の音 a dry scratch, sound of a needle

ゆっくり母音を　置くように as if slowly placing vowels

大事に胸を　打つように like beating the chest with care

まわれまわれ　世界よまわれ spin, spin, o world, spin!

ワタシと貴方を you and i

置いてゆけ leave it behind

5. Vocalise

Music: Kozue Tsukayama

6. Flower

Music: Yuki Ito

7. 夢中散歩 (Muchu Sampo, wandering in a dream)

Lyrics, Music: Ayako Tsuchiya

星　導かれるように降って falling stars as if being guided

そって　ここにいるよと伝えた gently i told you i’m here

子供の頃の春のままの僕に as i was in the spring of youth

冷たい君の手が触れた touched by your cold hand

Rhythm　鼓動を倍に感じて rhythm, feel the heartbeat double

長い　髪なびかせて　宙を舞い long hair flutters dance in air

ガラスのような君と　二人で together with you, like glass

夢は　続く　続く the dream continues continues

涙で潤む　瞳の奥の deep within tear-filled eyes

その台詞が好きさ i love those words

「可哀想ね」 ‘poor thing’

（飽きることなく） (never gets old)

笑った　記憶もやがて消え去る even memories of laughs will fade

何も出来ない僕を許して？ will you forgive me who could do nothing?

哀しい顔して　切なく魅せれば with a sad look you painfully display

夢は　続く　続く the dream continues continues

「可哀想ね」 ‘poor thing’

8. Dialog

Lyrics: Ayako Tsuchiya Music: Kozue Tsukayama

穏やかにみえる　静かな空に in the calm quiet sky

ふと　寄る　影 unexpected, a shadow approaches

うしろで　みつけた found behind me

輝く　太陽を the shining sun

痛みに似ている　憧れにいつも like pain, a yearning, always

追いかけられ pursuing me

疲れた　わたしは i’m tired

光が　恋しくて i miss the light

まっすぐ　うしろに　進んだ i moved straight back

そーっと softly

また　曇り空が出て again, the cloudly sky appears

気まぐれに　わたしに on a whim, to me

木洩れ陽を　みせるの showing sunlight through the trees

影を追いかけ chasing shadows

なぞる　白！ tracing white!

無理に描いた　穏やかな空に the calm sky, impossible to draw

消えた　太陽 the vanished sun

Audio and Video

• Audio for track #2 “Selene’s Dance”:

• Audio for track #7 “Muchu Sampo”:

• Promotional video with excerpts of songs from this album:

• Live version of track #6 “Flower”:

• Excerpt from track #5: “Vocalise”

Over the album’s six tracks and 30 minutes, Yuki Ito is unaccompanied but unafraid with her formidable upright bass, playing three original compositions, two covers, and one free improvisation.

It could be considered a brave endeavor to release a solo album on bass (or upright bass, aka double bass, contrabass, acoustic bass, upright, standup, or wood bass). As the great bassist Christian McBride humorously would put it, “I’m just the bass player”, a lighthearted play on a stereotype of the role (similarly, the title of his new album with bassist Edgar Meyer is /But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? — /a double double bass album!).

The deep bass notes may even sound intimidating to some, like a grave voice about to announce something serious, intone a warning, or deliver bad news. Think of Alan Rickman’s or Darth Vader’s commanding authority. Potential listeners could feel tentative about giving a solo bass album a try, and bassists may be concerned about that when considering this format.

On the other hand, the low bass range can be deeply comfortable and solid, warm and secure like a thick blanket providing protection. Think of Morgan Freeman’s soothing gravitas.

Perhaps the overall impression depends on the delivery and style, the environment that the low notes are sent into, and the changed environment created by their presence.

For this album, the physical environment is nature, a forest in a mountain region, and the created space is slow, comforting, and kind. It’s definitely a welcoming invitation.

Sonically as well, an album filled only with bass notes creates an environment different from everyday jazz albums. That difference helps the music stand out by offering a distinctive thirty minutes of music and a special experience with deep resonance.

Bass in Jazz

It goes without saying that the deep bass note register and walking bass lines have been an important feature of jazz music through the years. It’s easy to associate jazz bass with the characteristic locked-in groove that, together with drums, delivers that propulsive, gravitational force that hooks listeners and doesn’t let go. Even so, casual listeners may overlook the bass, or “feel it but not hear it”, as bass lines can be overshadowed by louder and higher register instruments.

Also, in tight stage spaces upright bassists often stand in the background with their large instruments behind the front-line players or between the piano and drums. It’s an audible low range that is strongly felt by listeners but typically doesn’t stand out glaringly, appearing to be a supporting role to spotlit horns and vocalists.

That is, until a bass solo arrives, the band’s volume lowers or even drops out entirely, and the low-frequency notes magnetically draw hushed, rapt attention from the audience for several moments.

It’s easy to imagine that casual listeners may regard jazz bass as that big, cool instrument in the back and the background, doing something at the bottom, not standing out, and providing that constant and addictive groove of notes that spread out, connect, and fill up the room with grounded energy.

A solo bass album is a great opportunity to put this great instrument in the spotlight, expand those horizons, and bring it out from the background, to stand out with the standup bass.

Yuki Ito’s Solo Bass

Instead of exploring normal expectations like walking bass lines or bowed arco playing, Ito uses the bass as her voice to lyrically focus and improvise on the songs’ themes. The melodies that Ito plays are tenor or alto-like in their songful qualities, like a solo vocalist humming and vocalizing in those ranges. It’s a very musical approach where the sole instrument just happens to be solo bass.

While playing the melody on high strings, Ito hits bass notes or lets loose pedal tones on ringing lower strings, sometimes simultaneously to great effect. Hearing the occasional creak of the instrument’s wood and the deep timbre of the sound box gives a clear sonic image of the large instrument, one that brings the listener right up close to the upright. Ito even incorporates knocking on the bass’s body on one track, another element that brings the large wooden instrument tangibly closer to the ears.

The album is full of slower-to-midtempo pulses, emotionally delivered, so are flexible and rubato at many times, but not so loose as to be freeform ambient music.

Ito’s north star is the theme and feel of each song, so tricks for tricks’ sake are not part of the plan. Specific techniques for stringed instruments arise naturally, mostly with double stops and split string playing to allow bass notes and melodies to coexist and frame the music.

The album’s closing improvisation brings this to an excellent peak with a catalog of impromptu ideas like broken chord arpeggios, tremolo plucking, harmonics, pedal drones, and more, fitting the musical content without being overdone. There are even actual birds singing along with Ito’s notes, as if in accompaniment. This last track goes on for an elevated five minutes of misty adventure and certainly would have still been wonderful at twice that length or more.

The Recording

The album was recorded in 2019 in Hokkaido at a recording studio located among birch trees in the mountains. Tracks #1-5 were recorded in the studio, and track #6 was recorded behind the studio, outside, making the most of the natural setting full of trees and birds (note the tune’s subtitle “Birdsong”).

This birch-filled scene is shown on the cover photo with Ito and her bass, surrounded by trees with the chirps of birds as she becomes part of the environment to transform the experience into spontaneous music.

Compositions, Covers, and Improvisation

With solo performances, tentative listeners may worry that a player’s complete control and freedom could result in unconstrained playing without limits leading to wildly free or abstract playing (of course, some listeners will love how that sounds!)

Yet most of the music on Retattanni no Mori consists of written-out pieces. That is, songs with distinct structures and melodies enclosing and influencing the improvisation within.

Ito’s original compositions on Retattanni no Mori have plainspoken and almost folk-song qualities. For example, track #1 “Hinageshi” lays out a theme like downward stairsteps forming a gentle melody, a leisurely stroll in a relaxed mood.

With a similarly quaint feel, the title track #4 “Retattanni no Mori” is poetically expressive, mesmerizing with ideas floating over the implied chord changes, a traditional story being told and felt without words.

In contrast, the third original is Ito’s track #3 “Brace”, which brings her self-accompaniment most clearly to the foreground on this album. The song is anchored by a sparse bass line created by low two-bass hits and percussive knock-on-wood bass body thumps. These effects set the groove, frame measures, and mark chord changes strikingly. The rhythmic posts are strung together with Ito’s higher string playing filled with slick licks and improvised lines. It’s quite a guitarlike approach, funky, groovy, and spirited, a physically present sound with Ito playing at her bluesiest.

This impressive self-accompaniment style also brings to mind bassist Brian Bromberg’s solo performance of “Come Together”, originally recorded on his 2006 album /Wood/… an album title that surfaces another nice parallel to the recording studio where Retattanni no Mori was recorded, Studio Wood, in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, a mountainous, tree-covered locale with a rich heritage of woodworking and craftsmanship.

In addition to Ito’s compositions, two jazz standards are included. Track #2 “Nature Boy” is haunting and tenderly sad (see the recent article by for more on this fascinating song and songwriter.

Meanwhile, track #5 “On the Sunny Side of the Street” is a slight outlier on the tranquil and meditative album. Ito plays this tune at a cheery tempo and with a swing feel, where plucking and sliding of fingers on strings, together with inhales of breath between musical phrases, underlines the noteworthy and ably accomplished solo aspect of the record.

The last piece is track #6, “Free Improvisation Tori no Koe”, a collection of improvised musical ideas and string techniques inspired by the surrounding natural environment which Ito becomes a part of for those final five minutes of the album.

Overall, it’s an easily-returnable album for its unique moods and musical moments: low frequencies and skillful playing, clear themes with soothing melodies and spontaneous invention, and interesting music to absorb and wrap up in.

About the Title

The Japanese title printed on the album is interesting. レタッタッニの森 contains three parts and is written using the three writing systems in Japanese:

• レタッタッニ (retattanni) in katakana, meaning/ white birch tree/ in Ainu
• の (no) in hiragana, a possessive particle meaning of
• 森 (mori) in kanji, meaning forest

Also printed on the album are the words retat-tat-ni kor nitay, the title in the Ainu language of the Indigenous people of Japan.

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Hinageshi”, track #1 on this album:

• Audio for “Brace”, track #3 on this album:

• Audio for “Retattanni no Mori”, track #4 on this album:

• Album tracks #1, 3, and 4 on streaming music services

• Excerpt from track #2: “Nature Boy”