Loss galvanizes, loss focuses, and musical artists turn loss into shared reflections. Emi Makabe has focused the passing of her father into a generous meditation on resilience and legacy with her second recording on Sunnyside Records, Echo. The title reminds us of the connections between generations. Here are ten musical memories that span time and culture, blending a modern jazz sensibility with a traditional Japanese soul.

Born in Japan, where she studied Japanese traditional music, Emi Makabe moved to New York in 2008. She is an educator and contributor to the jazz scene, composing and performing her own music. Her previous recordings, an EP on the Japanese Jazz label D-Musica Out of Time (2016) and Anniversary (2020), laid the foundation of her sound: soaring, sweet singing in Japanese, English and wordless vocalizing, accompanied by her flute and shamisen on top of jazz-inspired piano, drums, and double bass.

Using these materials, Makabe celebrates the legacy of her father, supported by Thomas Morgan (double bass, backing vocals) and Vitor Gonçalves (piano, accordion, Wurlitzer electric piano), both of whom return from her previous records, as well as Kenny Wollesen (drums, percussion, vibraphone, electronics). Also appearing as guests are Meshell Ndegeocello (spoken word), Jason Moran (piano), and Bill Frisell (acoustic guitar) on the opening track.

Opening with Frisell’s acoustic guitar and confidently sentimental, “Birthday Song” comes to grips with loss, featuring a touching spoken meditation and a haunting Frisell solo. It ends with the hope, “I wanna remember the warmth of being in your arms.” The record closes with “Overture,” anchored by Gonçalves’ dripping Wurlitzer supporting Makabe’s Japanese exhortation, “Let's talk again, countless times/Let's talk, if we meet again.”

Besides the refreshingly unselfconscious sentimentality, Makabe strides confidently between the traditional Japanese melodies, instruments, and the language of her upbringing in her father’s world and the contemporary jazz of New York clubs. “Snow” begins with Makabe’s shamisen playing a pentatonic tune, while “Text” swings in a fast bebop, with Makabe’s flute and harmonized Japanese scat singing.

“Morisan” hurries between worlds led by bouncy accordion, rolling jazz traps, and a stylish piano solo by Jason Moran. Moran also shares production credits with Thomas Morgan and Makabe herself.

Utterly unique in approach, and equipped with a lovely vocal instrument, and with a skilled and single-minded ensemble, Emi Makabe has created a passionate, introspective, and honest fusion of tradition and modernity to celebrate the passing of the generations.

Find the artist online.

Further listening:
Carmen Souza - The Silver Messengers: A Tribute to Horace Silver
Mamak Khadem - Rembrance
Yussef Dayes - Black Classical Music

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