Atsuko Hashimoto Organ Trio and Voices: Songs We Love (2007)

'Songs We Love' is a fitting title for a project that brings together Osaka's finest husband and wife jazz team with three outstanding vocalists from the U.S. Songs abound on this recording, but the operative word here is love. The love the Hashimoto's inspire, reflected in the reverent yet playful way they approach their craft, goes a long way toward explaining why others are so eager to share their talents in creating music with them.
Atsuko began to explore the B3 at an early age starting with popular songs and cutting her teeth on such jazz classics as Duke Ellington's Take the A Train. She studied classical music for several years before choosing to dedicate herself to jazz music and the jazz organ.
At age 18 she started working for Hammond Japan, giving live organ demonstrations and instructing as a Hammond-certified teacher. She quickly developed a reputation for her skills at the B3, creating complex melodic and harmonic compositions over a consistent, inventive and hard-swinging bass-line.
Atsuko brings a freshness to the jazz repertory and the Hammond B3 through her innovative approach to the instrument. She has played with jazz greats before large audiences, her joy in music, sense of play and abundant personal warmth shining through her mastery of the idiom while exercising the full range of voices and dynamics available to the Hammond/Leslie combo.

Tracklist:
1. Ladybug 6:24
2. Bye Bye Blackbird 4:27
3. My Ship 5:24
4. You Don't Know What Love Is 4:05
5. Misty 5:24
6. The Song Is You 4:48
7. Nature Boy 7:31
8. Ruggin' the Blues 4:40
9. What's Going On 4:53
10. The More I See You 6:36
11. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow 3:50
12. God Bless the Child 5:58
13. Stormy Monday 5:35
Personnel:
Atsuko Hashimoto: B3 Hammond Organ Trio
Yutaka Hashimoto: Guitar
Juasa Kanoh: Drums
Additional vocals:
Elijah Levi
Harvey Thompson
Toni Scruggs
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Atsuko Hashimoto: Time After Time (2008)

There’s no getting around it, one of the loveliest and most pulse-pounding sounds in jazz are those created by artists who have command of the art, command of technique and play the Hammond B-3 organ. Atsuko Hashimoto is one of those. Born in Osaka, Japan Hashimoto started on the organ at the age of four and is trained in both jazz and classical music studies. She’s worked in both clubs and concert halls in the United States and Japan. Time After Time is her fourth CD.

Hashimoto, who on this disc works with guitarist Yutaka Hashimoto and the great drummer Jeff Hamilton, plays in the Joey DeFrancesco school of abundant technique matched by effortless wit and a take no prisoners mentality on up tempo burners. One of the many tunes where she shows off her incredible chops is on "Just One Of Those Things." Her ability to race up and down the keyboard with startling rhythmic accuracy at tempos seemingly beyond mortal man is astonishing. That in so doing she also makes musical sense places her in a category with few organists working today.

Her sense of wit and sly humor is shown well in her rendition of "Please Send Me Someone To Love." Opening her solo by taking a few very understated choruses that emphasize single note repetition, she eventually blows the walls out of the joint when she turns it loose. Hamilton, no slouch when it comes to tasteful and technically copious playing himself, matches her stride for stride and lick for lick. He’s there when she kicks and when she cakewalks. Their duet is a true work of beauty. On the soulful side her playing on "The End Of A Love Affair" is joyously somber and bittersweet. The entire disc is full of just this kind of fun and rambunctious music making.

Yutaka demonstrates a wonderfully soulful view of the blues on "Max," where he lays out some nice in-the-pocket lines seemingly influenced by Johnny "Guitar" Watson. The stars of the disc, however, are Atsuko and Hamilton. Their pairing is magic and experiencing their rapport is well worth the price of the disc.

Tracklist:
01. Time After Time 6:05
02. Just One Of Those Things 4:22
03. I've Never Been In Love Before 6:03
04. Max 6:15
05. Estate 6:28
06. The End Of A Love Affair 5:56
07. Shiny Stockings 7:01
08. Love For Sale 7:03
09. Please Send Me Someone To Love 5:29
10. Little Suede Shoes 4:21
11. Summertime 4:16
Personnel:
Atsuko Hashimoto (B-3 Organ)
Yutaka Hashimoto (guitar)
Jeff Hamilton (drums)
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[By Request] Atsuko Hashimoto: ... Until the Sun Comes Up (2011)

Jazz organists often have a tendency to gravitate toward the funkier side of things, and have done so since the glory days of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. Organist Atsuko Hashimoto, on the other hand, seems to have focused more tightly on developing her sense of swing, and it pays off mightily on this, her first album for the venerable Capri label. The program is a mix of originals and truly well-worn standards, and what may be most impressive about the album is her ability to bring freshness and energy to some of these chestnuts through sheer energy and the elephantine power of her swing; listen, for example, to her renditions of both "Cherry" and "Yours Is My Heart Alone." Not only are her solos amazing for their joyful inventiveness, but the rhythmic power she generates along with her sidemen Graham Dechter (guitar) and Jeff Hamilton (drums) is like a force of nature. Elsewhere she takes brisk, no-nonsense midtempo renditions of "So in Love" and "Moon River" and turns them into something brand new. The group's arrangement of "It's a Wonderful World" is the album's sole disappointment, a predictably sappy rendition that is just barely redeemed by yet another brilliantly constructed organ solo. The album ends on a very high note, with the joyfully gospel-flavored "Hallelujah I Love Her So." This is a brilliant and thrilling album.

Tracklist:
01. All or Nothing At All 6:03
02. Soul Station 5:44
03. So in Love 5:51
04. Moon River 8:21
05. What A Wonderful World 6:06
06. Blues for Naka 6:18
07. You Are My Sunshine 4:17
08. Cherry 6:28
09. Your's Is My Heart Alone 4:17
10. The Good Life 5:45
11. Hallelujah, I Love Her So 4:54
Personnel:
Atsuko Hashimoto - Hammond B3 organ
Graham Dechter - guitar
Jeff Hamilton - drums
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