Volume 32, Issue 2 · October–November 2026
Under the Surface Plays the Music of Sumi Tonooka
Ken Waxman
One septet that does so is the resolutely non-electric Alchemy Sound Project on Under the Surface Plays the Music of Sumi Tonooka (ARC 6670 sumitonooka.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-surface). It features trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, trombonist Michael Ventoso, tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, Salim Washington playing tenor saxophone, bass clarinet and flute, pianist Tonooka, bassist Gregg August and drummer Jonathan Blake. A transnational collective, this particular configuration was organized to play this suite, symbolically representing tree root survival. It was composed by Tonooka, who often plays in a trio, but now branches out composing for chamber ensembles, symphonies and larger jazz groups.
Beginning with the obviously titled Points of Departure her emphasized and often stop-time keyboard strategy is astringent enough to suggest Herbie Nichols at his most cadenced, angular enough to reference Thelonious Monk’s comping but alive with keyboard tinkles and responsive voicing to salute her mentor Stanley Cowell on For Stanley. But as acerbic as some of her lines may be, turns during the tracks contain a steadfast finger-snapping groove. Ventoso contributes a virtuoso wah-wah introduction to Saveur reminiscent of “Tricky Sam” Nanton’s growls with early Duke Ellington bands. It introduces the pecking horns vamps and August’s walking bass line, allowing the measured theme to shuffle forward with a plethora of emphasized notes and rests. Overall narratives highlight everything from clarion register bass clarinet trills to portamento trumpet theme elaboration. Emphasized are equally knowing dips into keyboard interpretations ranging from faux old-timey to clashing near-atonal. Overall, Tonooka uses band timbres to their fullest. With tunes at points referencing bossa nova, Bop and blues motifs, her arrangements stretch the instruments into reed, brass, string and percussion sections to produce a sound much larger than expected from seven pieces.
Excerpted from “Something in the Air,” by Ken Waxman, published in The WholeNote, October–November 2026.
Read the original review in The WholeNote.