Yuko Mabuchi moved to the United States from her native Japan only recently, but when she plays American jazz, she speaks the language perfectly. Yuko's sense of rhythm and melody, and her improvising feels like she was born in Detroit or New York City. But beyond her talent for traditional jazz, one can also hear flavours of American R&B, Hip Hop and Blues, which Yuko loved as a teenager. This album's associate producer and Yarlung special advisor Billy Mitchell describes Yuko's playing as 'funky from the heart', and he means that as an enormous compliment. Yuko was born in Fukui, on the west coast of Japan, north of Kyoto. Included on this album are arrangements of Cole Porter: What ls This Thing Called Love from the musical Wake Up and Dream; Mark Lehman: Valse Noire; Bronislaw Kaper: On Green Dolphin Street - the tune made famous by Miles Davis in his 1958 recording; and Sara Bareilles: Seriously, originally written for the singer Leslie Odom Jr. for a special session on This American Life.
