YOW Jazz, July 22: Trees “Under the Surface” plus new releases
An interview with Sumi Tonooka about her recent release, “Under the Surface”
Trees communicate with each other and support each other through an underground network known as the “wood wide web”. On her new release, pianist Sumi Tonooka has composed music that builds on this sense of connection. On the show I talk to her about her inspiration, as well as the musicians that make up the Alchemy Sound Project.
In our interview she mentioned some of her teachers, including Mary Lou Williams. Here she is in 2012, performing a Mary Lou Williams medley.
She wrote:
I’m a huge fan of Mary Lou Williams who was a big influence on me. I studied with her in my formative years and being in her presence and under her tutelage was an experience that lives with me to this day.
She had a deep spiritual relationship with the music, she would have me sit next to her, and I would listen and watch her play. She was a force! During my first lesson before I touched a key on her upright piano, she made me aware whose hands had touched those keys, none other than Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. If walls could talk!
Mary Lou Williams life covered the entire history of jazz, and she played authentically from all of those styles. She was also a founder of early Be Bop and had an ear for the Avant Guard and modern free playing. I even went to see her perform with Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall and attended the after party! My favorite quote about Mary Lou Williams is from Duke Ellington who said Mary Lou Williams was like “soul on soul”.
We also chatted about another of her teachers, Stanley Cowell - and that part of our conversation will be included in my feature on Stanley Cowell for In A Mellow Tone on Wednesday at 9 p.m.
On the balance of the show we will listen to new releases, including a track honouring James Baldwin from the new Jaleel Shaw release, “Painter of the Invisible”. Baldwin’s 101st birthday will be on August 2nd. Jazz was an important part of Baldwin’s identity and he counted Miles Davis and Roy Ayers among his friends.
“Music is our witness, and our ally. The beat is the confession which recognises, changes, and conquers time. Then, history becomes a garment we can wear, and share, and not a cloak in which to hide; time becomes a friend.”
- James Baldwin, “Of Sorrow Songs: the Cross of Redemption.”
You can listen to the show live on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at 93.1 on the FM dial in the National Capital Region or through live streaming at CKCUFM.com. The show is also available for streaming on demand.