Sumi Tonooka

Bio:

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A NOTE OF HOPE documentary trailer from Citygate Films on Vimeo.

A NOTE OF HOPE documentary trailer from Citygate Films on Vimeo.

TECHINICAL NOTE: This video is best viewed using a broadband connection. If you have any problems viewing it online, hit the stop button (second button from the left in the controls), wait for the video to load completely (watch the progress bar), then hit the play button (right arrow at the far left in the controls). INFORMATION

This is the first trailer for the forthcoming documentary, “A Note of Hope,” from Citygate Films. Currently halfway through production, this film is part music appreciation, part humanitarian documentary. It explores the legacy of faith of the traditional American Negro spiritual through the experiences of jazz musicians John Blake Jr., Gerald Veasley, Sumi Tonooka, Rosella Clemmons Washington, and Harry “Butch” Reed. This trailer points to the upcoming September 2009 Africa tour that this group will make as they return to the musical roots of this song form and share the spiritual heritage of this music with those who still suffer today — children left parentless by AIDS.

Arrangements by John Blake, Jr.

Credits: Carolyn McCulley (director/producer/writer), David Altrogge (assistant director/camera), Michael Hartnett (DP/camera/DIT/editor), Drew Painter (DP/camera), (Andrew Gallo (camera/titles), Daniel McNeill (editor), John David Maresco (audio/grip), Johnny Altrogge (audio/grip), Dallas Taylor (sound mix/design).

Copyright 2009 Citygate Films LLC

Also see: ..JohnBlakeJr.com

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ABOUT SUMI TONOOKA

Noted jazz critic Francis Davis, one of the first to recognize her as an extraordinary talent, placed Sumi Tonooka "among the best of today's young pianists." During a career now spanning more than 20 years, Sumi Tonooka has been surprising and delighting audiences — and quietly piling up accolades from jazz writers and her fellow musicians. Working in trio or quartet with such noted jazz stalwarts as bassist Rufus Reid and drummers Akira Tana and Lewis Nash, Tonooka's recordings characteristically blend her own compositions with highly personal readings of jazz standards. Her first professional stint at age 18 was with the Philly Joe Jones quartet, Le Grand Prix. From there she went on to perform with such luminaries as Kenny Burrell, Little Jimmy Scott, Sonny Fortune, Red Rodney, Benny Golson and David Fathead Newman. Ms. Tonooka holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Philadelphia College of Performing Arts. She studied piano with Bernard Peiffer, Susan Starr, Mary Lou Williams, and Stanley Cowell, and received additional training in piano and composition from Madame Margaret Chaloff of the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to her jazz recording and performing, she has composed for film and dance.

Japanese-American and African-American by background, Sumi Tonooka has also broken new ground in her extended compositions blending Japanese musical instrumentation with jazz. Her 1988 work, "Out from the Silence," for koto, shakuhachi, and jazz ensemble, was commissioned by the Japanese-American Citizens League to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the World War II–era internment of Japanese-Americans. JazzTimes called the music "spellbinding." In 1993 a commission from Meet the Composer and an NEA Jazz Fellowship enabled Ms. Tonooka to continue exploring new musical territory combining Eastern and Western musical idioms. In December, 1993, this led to the New York premiere of the Taiko Jazz Project, wherein 8 interrelated pieces based on the I Ching were scored to feature taiko master Kenny Endo, together with some of the most highly respected players in jazz. Since then, the Taiko Jazz Project has appeared on both coasts in trio and sextet aggregations. Tonooka's career has been chronicled on several highly regarded jazz books, including Living The Jazz Life by Royal Stokes, ln The Moment by Francis Davis, and Madamme Jazz by Leslie Gourse (all on Oxford University Press). She now divides her time between composing, teaching, and performing for an increasingly widespread audience of jazz aficionados who have discovered her wide ranging talents. 

Bio excerpt courtesy of: ..www.SumiTonooka.com  

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SELECT DISCOGRAPHY

o Long Ago Today
With Rufus Reid (bass) and Bob Braye (drums). Artists Recording Collective, 2008.

o Secret Places
With Rufus Reid (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums). Joken Records, 1998.

o Here Comes Kai
With Rufus Reid (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums). Candid Productions Ltd., 1992.

o Taking Time
With Craig Handy (saxophones), Rufus Reid (bass), and Akira Tana (drums). Candid Productions Ltd., 1991.

o With an Open Heart
With Rufus Reid (bass) and Akira Tana (drums). Radiant Records, 1990

As a Collaborator

o Kindred Spirits
With John Blake, Jr. (violin). Spirit Records, 2000

As an Ensemble Pianist

o Bobby Zankel — Seeking Spirit
Bobby Zankel, saxophones. Cadence Jazz, 1991.

o John Blake — A New Beginning
John Blake Jr., Violin. Radiant Records, 1988. 

Member Since:

January 04, 2006

Members:

THE QUARTET
Erica Lindsay - tenor sax/comp
Sumi Tonooka - piano/comp
Rufus Reid - double bass
Bob Braye - drum set

GET AUTOGRAPHED COPY:

Sumi Tonooka and Erica Lindsay
Initiation

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PIANIST SUMI TONOOKA AND
SAXOPHONIST ERICA LINDSAY
RELEASE FIRST STUDIO ALBUM

INITIATION to be released January 12, 2010 on Artists Recording Collective

* Featuring bassist Rufus Reid & the late drummer Bob Braye *

“Sumi Tonooka brings to the music a formidable presence as a composer, player and leader that cannot be denied… a must listen…” — Cadence

“[Erica’s] profound soul-searching technique straddles Coltrane’s spirituality and Joe Henderson’s fiery versatility, making hers a name to watch”— Bob Margolis, Ulster Publications

Initiation, the dynamic new Artists Recording Collective CD by pianist Sumi Tonooka (pronounced To-NO-ka) and tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, showcases their shared skills as composers and bandleaders. Though they’ve been playing together since they first met in the spring of 1994, this is their first in-studio collaboration. “We wanted to document and reveal something of our musical dynamic together,” says Tonooka.

Initiation features bassist Rufus Reid and the late drummer Bob Braye, both of whom were on Tonooka’s previous trio release, Long Ago Today, which earned critical acclaim and a place on numerous top CDs of 2008 lists. Initiation will be released on January 12, 2010.

An underlying sense of swing and drive, with commanding bass lines and a strong sense of form and harmonic structure create the binding threads in the music of these two female performers/ composers. As Tonooka puts it, “we have been pursuing similar paths as jazz musicians and have happily met up on that path…” They saw early on in their association that their differences would strengthen their artistic visions and desires.

Their initial collaborations took place at Justin’s, a casual and intimate jazz club in Albany, NY when they were brought together by a quartet lead by drummer Hal Miller. Over a period of a few years their creative process solidified as Tonooka and Lindsay shared and developed their compositions in a supportive quartet setting. Tonooka observed that “Erica’s compositions drew out something different in my playing and my compositions brought out something else in hers. We felt that together we could create a strong and vital musical expression.”

In 2005 Tonooka’s friend, composer and pianist John Hodian who was leaving for the summer on a European tour with his wife, vocalist Bet Williams gave her the keys to the Woodstock studio. “I knew this was an opportunity to record that I did not want to miss,” Tonooka remembers. “It had been awhile and there was a lot of music-making, compositions composed and life lived to draw from. Erica and I got down to the business of producing two recordings – my trio CD Long Ago Today…and Initiation.” Both artists collaborated equally in producing and each provided five compositions for the project, while Lindsay took on the job of mixing and mastering.

On Initiation, you’ll hear how the music flows through the hands and hearts of both artists. As a composer, Lindsay writes what she knows – herself. She has a brawny, definitive voice, similar to tenorman Joe Henderson’s sound. Shooting straight from the hip, Lindsay’s “Yes,” originally an improvised piece” inspired by a poem by Janice King, dives forward and hits hard. Braye lays down an unrelenting pounding on two and four and then wheels the ensemble into a speedy 4/4. A spontaneous freeing-of-the-minds interlude between Tonooka, Reid and Braye, followed by a collective surge of brilliance brings them back to their previous pace. Lindsay and Reid carry on a conversation that careens between coffee table banter and serious business at the onset of “Serpent’s Tale”.

Tonooka’s rhythm-based and harmonically striking compositions embrace the mysticism, sadness and wonder that come out of life, as well as the sparks that ignite it. On the title tune, she addresses the unpredictability of life and what we can learn from it. “Life happens and many unforeseen events and experiences can thrust us forward (whether we like it or not) to grow, to learn and ultimately share and help others through the trials of life,” she says. She wrote “The Gift” after her mother died “to celebrate her life and… specifically about the time spent together.” Braye’s gentle mallet work and cymbal swishes, like the flicker of a candle’s flame, add solemnity to the occasion. Lindsay sings as Tonooka dances through each note that they play.

Both artists praise the contributions of Braye and Reid. “Bob and Rufus play a critical role in this CD as the music is approached as four equal voices,” Lindsay notes. She and Braye already had a musical history before Initiation, as did Tonooka and Reid. Braye died the January following Initiation’s recording date. Initiation, Long Ago Today and his duo recording with Lindsay, Oceans, were his last three record dates. Tonooka sings his praises as drum master and “an amazing human being. We miss him deeply.”

In addition to playing music together, much goes on in the lives of these two leaders. Tonooka’s worlds of jazz and philanthropy intersect in “A Note of Hope”, a documentary from Citygate Films on the youngest victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa. She tours as part of a sextet featuring her musical compadre of two decades, jazz violinist John Blake, Jr. The group also features Gerald Veasley on electric bass, Rosella Clemmons on vocals and Butch Reed on drums, all musical ambassadors for this cause. You can also hear her with “The Rufus Reid Quintet-Live at the Kennedy Center” CD/DVD on Motema Records.

Lindsay, a faculty member of the Music Department at Bard College in New York, leads her own quartet and performs with the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Baikida Carroll Quintet, the Howard Johnson Hojo5 Quintet, the Jeff Siegel Quartet and the San Francisco-based group, Trace Elements.

Artists Recording Collective (ARC), is an independent label powered by the idea that artists need a home base for their music.

Sounds Like:

The technically brilliant trio opened with the evergreen I Hear A Rhapsody, before the gutsy and sensitive Sumi Tonooka dug into the keys, presenting two spell-binding original compositions: the ballad-like Shadow Waltz and the grooving Taking Time. . . . Both with very exacting titles such as Evidence by Thelonius Monk, and well-known pieces like Night and Day, this high-class trio secured its position in the highest echelon through its unusually quick rapport, arrangements that shed new light on standards, and virtuosic improvisations. . . . A genuine live experience of the highest magnitude!
[ Gustav Sigg ]





Fierce, fascinating composer and pianist . . . a thoughtful, fresh voice . . . delicate and articulate . . . driving and dramatic.
[ Leslie Gourse, Jazz Times ]





Revelatory . . . reminds you that originality is possible. Shes made her phrasing and touch personal; her lines breathe. . . . Her compositions . . . are rock solid without a moment of indecision or mistake. Technique is mastered by imagination, inspiration by intellect. She comes to her own conclusions, which is what jazz is all about.
[ Peter Watrous, Musician Magazine ]





Tonooka . . . opened her set with a crackling interpretation of Thelonius Monks Eronel. The dispatch with which Tonooka negotiated Monks precipitous lines left no doubt that she is among the best of todays jazz pianists. . . . At no time did Tonooka sound like a piano solist accompanied by bass and drums. The three instruments were fully interactive. . . . A brilliant performance.
[ The New York Times ]



Continually inventive, original, surprising, and a total delight.
[ Cuadranos de Jazz, Madrid ]



Provocative and compelling, both in straight out swinging situations and when she is developing fresh ideas for familar ballads.
[ The New York Times ]

SUMI TONOOKA
Long Ago Today


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