Apr17

w/Miho Hazama and M_Unit at Jazz Standard

The Jazz Standard, 116 E 27th St , New York, NY 10016

Miho Hazama – composer, conductor
Kavita Shah – voice Ben Kono – reeds 1 Jason Rigby – reeds 2 Jay Rattman – reeds 3 Jonathan Powell – trumpet Adam Unsworth – French horn Tomoko Akaboshi – violin 1 Sita Chay – violin 2 Matt Consul – viola Meaghan Burke – cello James Shipp – vibraphone Billy Test – piano Sam Anning – upright bass Jake Goldbas – drums

Composer and bandleader Miho Hazama and her 13–strong group m_unit reached a new pinnacle of artistic achievement with the February 2019 release of Dancer In Nowhere– the latest installment in a series of groundbreaking albums including 2013’s m_unit debut Journey to Journeyand the Thelonious Monk–themed The Monk: Live at Bimhuis, a collaboration with the Metropole Orkest Big Band. Miho Hazama, wrote veteran jazz journalist Dan Ouellette, is “a vital young artist who is delivering a singular style of music steeped in a variety of idioms…Her music is complex, teeming with unexpected twists and jolting turns as well as pockets of frenzy that lead into wonder.” Born in Tokyo, the composer is a Manhattan School of Music graduate and a winner of the BMI Jazz Workshop’s prestigious Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. “There are times when you feel something, but you can’t really describe it in words. You don’t know how you’re going react to that feeling, and maybe you can’t really express it, but you feel it so strongly inside. I started wondering if I could somehow describe this through music. Not necessarily a struggle or something negative: it could be happiness, fear, passion, energy. The challenge of capturing these things became a theme for me.” (Miho Hazama)