I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, The Vibe, from Nanami Haruta and it covers a broad spectrum of colors. Opening with Renee Rosnes' Girlie's World, Band leader and trombonist Nanami Haruta and Xavier Davis on piano setup the framework for this waltz tempo track. With Michael Dease on bari sax adding significant warmth to the track and Rodney Whitaker on bass and Ulysses Owens Jr on drums, this is a cool opener. Original track, Toshi features a really nice trombone solo by Haruta with great tone and phrasing with excellent piano accent by Davis and firm underpinnings by Whitaker and Owens. I like the hot drum rhythm under Christian McBride's Sister Rosa with solid piano counterpoint under the trombone harmonizing by Haruta and Dease. Haruta shows her stuff with smart articulation on her solo and Dease adds a great swinging solo of his own (also on trombone) leading into a rich bass solo by Whitaker making this one of my favorites on the release. Beautiful ballad, Heartstrings gives Haruta a wide open lane to allow her trombone sing and that's exactly what she does. Davis works a real nice off tempo piano interlude of his own adding a crisp counterpoint prior to Haruta taking control once again with unwavering richness. Very nice. Woodpecker is a definite bopper with excellent solos by Haruta, Davis, and Dease. Really nice! Wrapping the release is Alex North's movie track classic, Unchained Melody, carried lightly by the guitar work of Chris Minami on guitar and allowing plenty of bandwidth for Haruta to really work the melody on trombone. This track has been played by maybe 500 bands, but possibly none as nicely as this. Excellent closer.
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