Travellin' in Soul-Time: Live From Tokyo, Nagasaki and Kobuchizawa

by Steve LoewyDocumenting a tour of Japan memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this CD memorializes Mal Waldron's beautiful and poignant music, some of which was composed while on tour. Singer Jeanne Lee and flautist Toru Tenda join the pianist for a spacious, lovely set of moving music, supplemented by color pictures taken by Lee of the Tour. Few improvisers express the wonder of life that Waldron somehow evinces with each note, and Jeanne Lee's almost-whispered lullaby vocals are a splendid fit. Waldron seems to grow with age; his ability to evoke pastoral images with a minimalist approach plum the depths of emotion. The words chosen for the tunes, including a poem by a 14-year old survivor of Hiroshima - written in 1959 - help us to remember the horror that was.