Sumi Tonooka – Under the Surface
Powerful, Clear, and Driven by Inner Force
July 9, 2025
Jazz-Fun/Germany
Dynamic, powerful, and brimming with expression—this is the essence of the music on Sumi Tonooka’s remarkable album. There are no unnecessary tangents or meanderings; instead, everything flows with purpose and an inner pulse that sustains the tension until the final note. The compositions captivate with striking, original melodies that surprise and enchant from the outset. Tonooka writes with clarity and openness, yet beneath the surface of these structures lies a profound depth that reveals itself more fully with each listen. This powerful work not only captivates the listener but also invites them to delve deeper. An album that is an absolute must-hear!
Sumi Tonooka explores hidden truths and the invisible networks that sustain our world. The acclaimed Philadelphia-based composer and pianist has gained recognition in recent years for her commissioned works for symphony orchestras and her new compositions for her trio. With Under the Surface, set for release on June 27, 2025, via ARC, Tonooka’s diverse musical worlds converge in an expansive work that embodies the web of connections manifesting beneath our feet and in the music pavilions of our communities.
Under the Surface is a suite inspired by the roots of trees and the mycorrhizal network supported by fungi, which enables trees to ensure the survival of all surrounding trees, even across species. The work is anchored by Tonooka’s dynamic trio, featuring the highly versatile bassist Gregg August and special guest Johnathan Blake, a drummer also hailing from Philadelphia. Blake shapes Tonooka’s compositions, embodying the album’s concept. As Tonooka describes, he is both the driving force of the music and “part of my personal musical family and network.”
“I played with his father, the great jazz violinist John Blake, for over 30 years and have known Johnathan since he was a child,” Tonooka shares. Now one of the finest drummers of his generation, he “holds the baton—or the mycorrhizal energy—firmly in hand, passing it on to the next generation.”
Tonooka’s mycorrhizal concept may initially seem esoteric but is deeply grounded. The music springs from the essential web of relationships that allows musicians to connect, unfold, and improvise together. Composed during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic with support from a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant, the suite is both a tribute to how people supported each other through the crisis and a reflection on it.
Tonooka crafted the work for the Alchemy Sound Project, a diverse, intergenerational collective that has served as a sonic laboratory in recent years. She carefully highlighted the unique talents of the contributors: tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, trombonist Michael Ventoso, and multi-reedist Salim Washington, who plays tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute.
The album opens with the trio in “Points of Departure,” a lively journey that immediately showcases Blake’s mastery of texture and Tonooka’s adventurous spirit. Tonooka credits her recent work with groups led by Philadelphia pianist and icon Bobby Zankel, an improviser deeply influenced by his time under Cecil Taylor’s wing. The musicians honed their skills in unstructured settings. “There are no chord charts,” she says. “We play a theme and just go for it.”
With Ventoso’s extended wah-wah introduction, “Saveur” evokes an Ellingtonian rhapsody. The multi-sectional piece features a long trio passage marked by beautifully calibrated dynamics and the kinetic interplay between Blake and Lindsay’s balanced tenor. At eleven minutes, “Interval Haiku” is the suite’s centerpiece and longest movement. It begins with a dissonant, stately horn fanfare that soon gives way to a spirited, swinging piano trio passage. We’re soon back in the forest, accompanied by a series of solos led by Boshnack’s expressive trumpet. With its wide intervallic movements, this woodland soundscape feels deep, inviting, and mysterious.
The pace slows to a sensual stroll with the poignant ballad “Tear Bright,” transitioning from Ventoso’s winding trombone solo to Washington’s radiant bass clarinet passage. With “Mother Tongue,” the idyllic forest mood turns frenetic, as the dense, mid-tempo piece feels like a trap the musicians are trying to escape. A thicket of melodic lines, driven by August’s Latin-inflected bass, converges as Washington’s flute soars above and Ventoso’s trombone probes the ground. In the nuances of “Mother Tongue,” no stone is left unturned. With “For Stanley,” Tonooka offers a simple, heartfelt tribute to the late piano virtuoso Stanley Cowell, who passed away while she was composing the suite.
In her early twenties, Tonooka received a grant to study with Cowell, who became a significant mentor. “I loved his music. He introduced me to Akira Tana because he played with the Heath Brothers and Akira,” she says, referring to the great drummer with whom she recorded her first two albums. “He had many musical identities. The last time I saw him was at a concert with Jon Blake, and I wanted to honor him and his influence on me.”
The suite concludes with the vibrant, inviting, and often witty title track, “Under the Surface.” A duet passage between Blake and Washington closes with a playful nod to “Girl From Ipanema,” a cheeky reference that brings us back to the origin of all life—the sea.
In many ways, the path to Under the Surface traces back to Tonooka’s involvement with the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute (JCOI), a program fostering collaboration between jazz artists and symphony orchestras. Encouraged by Lindsay, who participated in the first JCOI session in 2012, Tonooka applied and thrived in the program. She was among the few JCOI composers whose work was selected for a premiere, with the American Composers Orchestra performing her piece Full Circle in New York City.
The Alchemy Sound Project emerged during her JCOI residency at UCLA, where she connected with Detroit-native Salim Washington, an impressive multi-instrumentalist and improviser who now leads the Global Jazz Studies department at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. Tonooka recruited Lindsay for their co-founded label, Artists Recording Collective (ARC), where they already led a recording quartet. As Artist-in-Residence at Bard College, Lindsay mentored JCOI participants Michael Ventoso and Samantha Boshnack, who lead several notable ensembles in Seattle’s creative jazz scene.
The idea for the Alchemy Sound Project came to Tonooka during her JCOI residency, as she spent time with other composers. “I thought, what if we wrote for each other, learned from each other, and performed each other’s music? The idea was to create a community, even a small one, to develop our own work,” she says.
Tonooka’s jazz education unfolded largely on stage. At 17, she was already composing numerous pieces for a Philadelphia trio that included the future bass star Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Legendary drummer Philly Joe Jones was so impressed that he brought her into his band for two years. After moving to New York City in 1983, Tonooka gained attention as a significant new voice. She made her debut as a bandleader in 1990 with With An Open Heart, a trio session featuring Akira Tana and Rufus Reid on bass. Before turning to orchestral music, Tonooka composed scores for about 20 films. The cohesion of Under the Surface stems from the Alchemy Sound Project refining the music during its first tour in 2024. As Tonooka says with a wink, the suite, after all her orchestral composing, touring, and recording, is “a return to my roots.”
“This album is a strong expression of what I’ve learned over the past ten years, engaging with orchestration and 20th-century music,” Tonooka reflects. She also embodies an alternative vision of social cohesion: a “Wood Wide Web” that extends the mycorrhizal metaphor from nature to human endeavors. “It turns the survival-of-the-fittest principle on its head, so it means the strong help the weak and the damaged, fostering collective collaboration and supporting the whole,” she explains. “In other words, people need each other and must work together to survive and thrive, just like trees.”
JACEK BRUN – Jazz-Fun/Germany