Yoko Yates - Eternal Moments

[GA Russell]

Yoko Yates Deepens Her Evocative, Original Vision with "Eternal Moments," To Be Released September 19 by Banka Records Pianist-Composer's Second Album Features 10 Originals In a Quintet with Jamie Baum, Sam Sadigursky, Aryeh Kobrinsky, Jeff Hirshfield   CD Release Concert at Greenwich House Music School, NYC; Saturday, September 20   July 21, 2025 Pianist-composer Yoko Yates expands on her unique musical concept on her Eternal Moments, her stunning sophomore album, set for a September 19 release on Banka Records. Retaining the quintet from her 2022 debut Mystic Life—flutist Jamie Baum, multi-reedist Sam Sadigursky, bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield—it also includes 10 original post-bop jazz compositions that explore Yates’s enmeshed fascinations with visual imagery, autobiography, and the natural world.   Eternal Moments is thus a natural, entirely organic follow-up to the much-lauded Mystic Life. “My first album was dedicated to childhood memory. I wrote from experiences related to nature and the world,” Yates explains. “This one is a little similar, but inspired by more recent experiences or events. I try to express more emotional complexity and more phases of each event, exploring a little more deeply.”   Yates also makes use of her visual imagination, spawning the evocative imagery of titles like “Winding River,” “The Flower Before Its Last Day,” and opener “Outer Space – Myriad Stars!” The music behind these and other titles is melodic and highly expressive. Yates, Baum, and Sadigursky (on clarinet) coalesce into a moody but flourishing glory on “The Flower Before Its Last Day,” while on “Collage of Life” that same front line—Sadigursky now on bass clarinet—form themselves into intriguing patterns, Kobrinsky and Hirshfield seeming to fasten them in place. The album’s autobiographical element occurs via Yates’s drawing on her own experiences and memories of nature in its many guises. Both “Aster” and “Song of the Wild” reflect her keen observations of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in the spring and fall, respectively. “Winter Calls” and “Steps of Spring” also paint pictures of the seasons as Yates has seen them. “Outer Space – Myriad Stars!” captures her captivation with the idea of space travel.   Yates, who studied both visual art and classical music in her youth, approaches jazz with a painter’s eye, a chamber player’s ear, and a stubborn individualist’s sense of style. “I like to express my feelings and emotions and I don’t care particularly about the form or genre,” she says. When the results are as thoughtful and gorgeous as the music of Eternal Moments, that approach will receive few complaints. Yoko Yates was born in Sapporo City, Japan, to a music-loving family that from as long as she can remember exposed her to a wide variety of styles. She began her piano studies at the age of four. While the training was classical, the era was the 1960s, and Yates was soon attracted to rock music, then to jazz when she discovered pianists Oscar Peterson and Toshiko Akiyoshi.   Beginning her secondary studies at her hometown’s Hokkaido University of Education, she transitioned to the United States and to Boston’s Berklee College of Music after winning Sapporo City’s Cultural Merit Scholarship and Berklee’s Professional Music Scholarship. She completed her bachelor’s degree in music at Berklee, then enrolled at Lesley University in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a master’s in education, followed by the doctoral program in music education from Columbia University, Teachers College in New York City.   For nearly 30 years, Yates has enjoyed a career in music education. Since 1996 she has been a faculty member in piano studies at both Manhattan’s Greenwich House Music School and at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music—serving for two years as the latter’s piano chair. She has also taught at several other schools.   In the meantime, Yates has also maintained a parallel career as a performing pianist (and occasional vocalist) and composer. She has written and performed for films, media, and literary events, including the Japanese news program Reuters Business Weekly; journalist Kyoko Gasha’s award-winning 2009 documentary film Mothers’ Way, Daughters’ Choice; and author Akiko Endo’s 9.11, My Journey of Jasmine.   In April 2022, Yates released Mystic Life, her first album as a leader, on Steeplechase Records with a quintet that featured flutist Jamie Baum, saxophonist/clarinetist Sam Sadigursky, bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield. Eternal Moments, featuring the same personnel, is her second recording. Yates's label name Banka has the meaning of “‘many different kinds of flowers’ and ‘changing in various ways,’ so ‘kaleidoscope’ is a good description of my music, with many compositions about nature involving different styles and elements.”   Yoko Yates and her quintet will perform a CD release concert at the Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street in New York City, on Sat. 9/20.       Photography: Erika Kapin   

Yoko Yates "Eternal Moments" EPK  

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