By Paul de Barros | Published January 2026
New York pianist Yoko Yates delivers a pastoral chamber jazz suite in 10 parts with the same excellent quintet she unveiled on her 2022 album, Mystic Life. Yates’ writing and arranging integrate pairs of winds with pulsing rhythm section; soloists Jamie Baum and Sam Sadigursky soar. Many tracks offer rhythmic intricacy and surprise, though others, less satisfying, feel merely pretty.
The opener bristles with ecstatic, Whitman-esque wonder, as Sadigursky distinguishes himself immediately on bass clarinet with a legato flow, full sound and smart ideas. Flute afficionados will have no trouble identifying Baum’s full, silvery tone and lithe phrasing. “The Flower Before Its Last” opens a warm embrace to the natural world, clarinet and flute chatting like songbirds. The chipper and cheerful “Collage Of Life” bounces like a jumping jack. Gorgeous, ghostly winds hover over “Spirits Of The Night,” with Baum’s alto flute and Sadigursky’s bass clarinet organically developing the evocative theme and bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky offering a warm comment. The interlocking parts of “Song Of The Wind” suggest a hocket.
Yates excels more as composer and arranger than as a soloist, but her outing on the closing track, “Steps Of Spring,” has substantial verve. Sadigursky’s alto saxophone can feel practice room-y (“Aster”) and his B-flat clarinet is harsh in the highs. Hats off to drummer Jeff Hirshfield, whose tasteful understatement envelope the proceedings, especially on the pleasant waltz “Winding River.” Overall, a strong album, especially when agitation and engagement triumph over enchantment.
