Yuka Mito is a Japanese jazz singer, and here she has been joined by a Japanese trio to work their way through seven classic numbers with a total playing time of 30 minutes. There is no doubt the band can play, with Hiroki Morioka having a wonderful touch on piano, and Yuka has a clear vocal style and nice range. The issue I have is that there appears to be little connection with the songs themselves, and with the vocals coming across as quite aged and fragile it is difficult to get excited about this. With two songs by Burt Bacharach, two by Jobim, and the others by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Nancy Hamilton, virtually all of these are known by everyone who enjoys jazz standards.

But here we have little in the way of excitement, little which makes this stand out, and while pleasant it is never anything more than that, the result being a CD which one would probably purchase having seen Mito at a small club somewhere, but then never play it again once getting home. I admit it was nice hearing “Alfie” for the first time in aeons, but this in no way compares with the one I grew up with by Cilla Black, while “Close To You” is a shadow of the version by The Carpenters. This is something which could be happily be played in the background without offending anyone, but seriously listening to it for entertainment is something else altogether.

Rating: 5/10

Links:
http://yukamito.com/