Album Notes

excerpts from Liner Notes by Francis Davis

With An Open Heart represents Sumi's first exposure on record. and there is going to be excited talk about her upon its release. The tracks that show her off to best advantage are those that catch fire from her fulgurous phrasing-hornlike in its linearity and melodic signification, percussive in its density and spring. "Piano is a percussion instrument" she says, and not surprisingly she lists among her influences a number of pianists of like mind,including Thelonius Monk, McCoy Tyner, Ahmad Jamal, and Nina Smone. But she has also been infulenced by horn players.

The composer Tonooka most admire is Duke Ellington and writing music often becomes a synesthetic experience for her, as it was for him. "I almost went into sculpture instead of music and the visual arts still influence my thinking. "Phantom Carousel," (the only solo performance on the album) started off as an excercise", she says explaining the genesis of the most overtly lyrical and impressionistic compostion here. The idea was to write something utilizing a six-tone symmetrical scale, just those six note in various combinations. But as I started seeing a carousel going 'round and round' as the notes recurred. It was on a mountain shrouded in mist, crying for children to come and play on it, but there were no children to be found. It began to haunt me and this image gradually became the sound."