Album Notes

ATSUKO HASHIMOTO ORGAN TRIO

Atsuko Hashimoto: B3 Hammond Organ Trio
Yutaka Hashimoto: Guitar
Juasa Kanoh: Drums

and voices..

Elijah Levi
Harvey Thompson
Toni Scruggs


'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.