For the past five years, Japanese jazz pianist Yoko Miwa (www.yokomiwa.com) has led her trio on annual trips to South Florida to perform at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, gaining a growing following there in the process.
Feb. 21 was Miwa’s latest installment, as the 55-year-old, classically trained pianist entertained a sold-out crowd during a two-hour show with acoustic upright bassist Will Slater and her husband, drummer Scott Goulding.
An associate professor in the piano department of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Miwa has released nine albums since she arrived in Beantown in 1997 — the result of earning a scholarship for her one-off audition performance in Japan of Thelonious Monk’s “Bye-Ya.” And while her albums have been successful critically and commercially, she’s learned to give audiences what she thinks they want. Early all-original releases have given way to those with jazz standards and pop interpretations interspersed.
Saxophonist Stanley Turrentine’s “Let It Go” thus led off, its bluesy, mid-tempo feel serving as a warmup for both the trio and the full house. Miwa’s lower-register notes on the Kawai grand piano were indeed Monk-ish, and Slater took the first of several stately solos as Goulding displayed his light touch while effortlessly switching between drumsticks and brushes.
“We always enjoy playing here at the Arts Garage,” Miwa said afterward. “And we like being here on vacation too. Scott and I are from Boston, and Will’s from New York. It’s snowing up there, so our flights back have been canceled.”
A playful arrangement of Natalia Lafourcade’s bossa nova tune “Un Pato” (“The Duck”) then proved an early highlight. Miwa plucked the strings inside the piano with one hand while muting them with the other before showcasing her blend of classical training with jazz nuance during a lengthy solo. Slater took a subsequent break, and Goulding displayed unique technique by mixing traditional with open-handed styles — playing his ride cymbal with his right hand and snare drum with his left, then his hi-hats with his left and snare with his right, rather than employing the standard crossing of the arms.
The Jimi Hendrix ballad “Angel” featured Miwa stating the singing guitarist’s vocal melody before passing the baton to Slater, impressive all night, who recreated the same melody during his solo. Pianist Erroll Garner’s mercurial “Chase Me” lived up to its name through the trio’s interplay; saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s standard “Night Dreamer” then proved anything but standard. The pianist displayed great improvisational ideas early, leading to another banner Slater solo and a Goulding break highlighted by his shimmering cymbal work.
Miwa’s original compositions, by contrast, offered more accessibility. “Keep Talkin,’” the bouncing title track from her 2019 release, and the new “I Wanna Sing” unearthed an unexpected influence. In addition to the usual suspects she recites — Chopin, Monk, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson — these performances echoed pianist Ramsey Lewis’ fusing of jazz, pop, funk, Brazilian and classical music from the 1960s and ’70s.
Like many open-minded jazz musicians from her generation and since, Miwa doesn’t look down at popular music as a lower audio life form. Her albums include covers ranging from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell to Ray Charles, Billy Preston, and Aerosmith.
“This one is for my cat, Edamame,” she said to introduce another of her original gems. “She was scared at first when we practiced at the house, but now she likes it and runs from room to room.”
The song’s start-and-stop action followed suit. Slater and Goulding dropped out midway, allowing Miwa to showcase her wide swath of influences again before the rhythm section re-entered to create a slower and funkier coda. Another pop cover, the Beatles medley “Golden Slumbers/You Never Give Me Your Money,” added her classical expertise to the poignant ballad feels, complete with Goulding’s ace brushwork.
That medley first appeared on Miwa’s Keep Talkin’ album, as did the showstopping cover of bassist Charles Mingus’ standard, “Boogie Stop Shuffle.” The pianist performed a dazzling intro on it, leading to another downshifted Slater statement and an unaccompanied solo by Goulding that featured some of his best work. The drummer’s style is unorthodox, mixing elements of Return To Forever’s Lenny White with the sparseness of The Beatles’ Ringo Starr.
Two long-awaited forthcoming releases, one with the trio and one with 24-year-old Berklee master’s program vocalist Mikayla Shirley, are set to follow up Miwa’s latest, the critically acclaimed Songs of Joy (2021). But even as her star ascends, the personable pianist played favorites by citing the album that features the Mingus standard, the Beatles medley and her own loping title composition as the evening wound down.
“People ask me if I have a favorite album from my catalog,” she said with a smile. “Right now, I’d say ‘Keep Talkin’’ is my favorite.”