Tomoko Omura has revealed herself as one of the great new talents in contemporary jazz with her great debut, "Visions".  A gifted composer/performer, Ms. Omura presents us with 7 wonderful original compositions where she pays tribute to seven of the greatest jazz violinists in history.  Starting off with "Enigmatic Vision", Ms. Omura introduces her quartet in full form and with total command and control of the intricacies and subltleties of the music.  Ms. Omura's warm tone and intelligent improvisational ideas really invite for close and detailed attention to the listener.  Using a 12/8 groove and an intricate bass line for this piece, Ms. Omura pays a fitting tribute to Jean-Luc Ponty, a violinist who had great interest in african music. This is followed by "New World Order", an up-swing burner with a very intricate melody, as a tribute to Didier Lockwood. This tune shows great group interaction and great display of chops and musicality all around. "Stephane's Waltz" is a truly beautiful piece dedicated to Django Reinhardt's long time musical partner, Stephane Grappelli. Ms. Omura makes great use of harmonics as a way to pay tribute to Grappelli by using one of his trademarks, but in a more modern way and true to her own style. Ms. Omura achieves a very beautiful, subtle, delicate and passionate performance, all that in this piece. A tribute to the great Zbigniew Seifert follows with "Zbigniew" in the form of a dynamic, bright piece alternating between straight-eight and swing feel. As with "New World Order", Ms. Omura shows us once again her virtousic side by showing her facility in up-tempo pieces. Ms. Omura also makes great use of double-stops in the melody, staying true to Seifert's style.  A slightly darker tune follows with "Mark's Passion", in a very fitting tribute to the great Mark Feldman. With a great solo violin intro, Ms. Omura introduces us to one of Feldman's trademarks. Beautiful piece with a great dark mood and very interesting harmonic ideas. An impressive use of the high register of the violin takes this piece to it's climax, showing once again, Ms. Omura's great command of her instrument. A tribute to Stuff Smith follows with "Stuffy", in the form of a up-tempo blues form with great group interaction and an interesting opening of Ms. Omura's solo with a violin/drums duo. The album closes with the nostalgic and beautiful "Italian Gem", as a tribute to Joe Venuti. The piece starts with Ms. Omura's great use of pizzicato and what may possibly be picking on the violin, alternating that with bowing, once again, showing us her command of the different techniques and sounds that can be achieved on the violin.  Ms. Omura closes the album with one of her most passionate and expressive solos.  This album shows a new talent in the jazz violin landscape that promises many other great releases.  Her great combination of strong compositions, a great quartet and an incredibly expressive, strong, intelligent and virtuosic performance on violin make her an artist worthy of greater exposure and someone to keep an eye on for future releases.
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A great jazz violin album - amazing compositions and beautiful playing!
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