YOKO MIWA & MIKAYLA SHIRLEY

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

Cupcakes & Muffins Label

Yoko Miwa, piano; Mikayla Shirley, voice.

This is a duet album featuring pianist Yoko Miwa and jazz vocalist Mikayla Shirley.  The clarity and vulnerability these two artists reflect when they perform as a duo is phenomenal. Vocalist, Mikayla Shirley makes some very lovely and interesting melodic note choices on the opening tune of “Alfie.”  Miwa’s piano solo stuns and pleases.

They swing “On the Street Where you Live” and Mikayla shows her scat power, easily using tones to tumble over the chord changes like a seasoned horn player.  Yoko Miwa has a professional touch on the grand piano, not only technically astute, but the perfect accompanist.

Mikayla Shirley is expressive and emotional when she sings “I love you Porgy.”

Mikayla also puts her own stamp on “Girl from Ipanema” singing in Portuguese, with Yoko Miwa’s rhythmic piano dancing beneath her musical partner’s expressive voice.

This album rewards my ears.  These two female artists bring the best of themselves and their talent to the studio, pleasing the listener with familiar songs that sound brand new. The simplicity of just two artists performing calls vivid attention to how crisp and enunciated every word of the lyric is when Mikayla Shirley sings her songs.  It also spotlights the sensitivity, and the beauty Yoko Miwa brings to her solo piano concert and accompaniment.

Miwa was a favorite pianist of the late jazz legend, Sheila Jordan.  This pianist also worked closely with the late great jazz vocalist, Kevin Mahogany.  She is a Professor in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music.

These two brilliant ladies hooked up at The Mad Monkfish’s Midnight Sessions in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  A collaboration developed.  There is a comfort level between them as warm and precious as a cashmere shawl.  That’s why I was so surprised when Miwa shared that she and Mikayla had never rehearsed, not once!

“Everything we’ve played together has either happened live on stage or in the studio during the recording of this album. While we’ve been performing this repertoire for some time, we don’t really work from fixed arrangements.  On a gig, we spontaneously decide what to play in the moment, guided by the emotional arc of the set, considering factors like mood, tempo, key and lyrical content,” Yoko Miwa explained.

Their spontaneity is impressive! The freedom they express on “But Not for Me” is truly entertaining.  They trade fours, like a cute conversation between best friends. Mikayla Shirley is a young jazz singer on the rise. The way she expresses “Tenderly” is dramatic and beautiful.  I expect great things from both of these gifted ladies, now and in the near future.

This album titled “The Midnight Hour” is a collection of remarkable songs interpreted by two extremely talented musicians, each committed to finding the emotional center of chosen compositions, while feeding us the spirit of each song in improvised spoonfuls.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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