New release from Racha Fora led by Hiro Honshuku. Stylish and thrilling arrangements of carefully selected standard jazz tunes. Racha Fora s hybrid sound of jazz improvisation and native Brazilian grooves has moved to a new phase.
After 2 years, Hiro Honshuku, a flutist and a composer who lives in Boston, released Racha Fora s 3rd album. Except Rika Ikeda, the featured violinist and the original member since the beginning of Racha Fora, new members has joined. Andre Vasconcelos on guitar and Sebastian Cbass Chiroboga on cajon.
Honshuku gave a very unique and refreshing arrangements to well known jazz standards such as All The Things You Are , In A Sentimental Mood , Summertime , Someday My Prince Will Come , Blues In The Closet and A Foggy Day .
From 1987, Honshuku worked with composer and orchestra leader, George Russell, the creator of the Lydian Chromatic Concept, assisting and performing in Russell s Living Time Orchestra.
In 2010, Honshuku formed Racha Fora with Rika Ikeda (violin), Mauricio Andrade (guitar), Rafael Russi (bass) and Fernando Saci (pandeiro), a Japanese-Brazilian mixed band. The following year, they recorded their debut CD, Racha Fora . Most of the material was written by Honshuku with a taste of Brazilian rhythms. Their 2nd album, Racha S Miles was a tribute to Miles Davis and showcased Honshuku s unique arranging skills. It featured guest artist Dave Liebman on sax, while Benhur Oliviera (pandeiro) replaced Saci.
On this 3rd album. Andre Vasconcelos replaced Andrade on guitar, pandeiro has been replaced with cajon now played by Harvey Wirht and Sebastian C-bass Chiliboga, and is focused on jazz standards.
Led by Hiro Honshuku who is a resident of Boston, a NYC based band “Racha Fora” released their 3rd album, which is a second Japanese release preceded by “Racha S’Miles”. It opens with Miles Davis’ “Nardis”, an aggressive arrangement and A powerful performance. It is followed by Jazz standards such as “All The Things You Are” and “In A Sentimental Mood”. Honshuku’s original, the title song, “Happy Fire” showcases his unique music style.
Racha Fora is a unique 2+2 format, 2 front lines are formed by Honshuku on flute/EWI and Rika Ikeda on violin, and the second line , the rhythm section is formed by Andre Vasconcelos on guitar and Sebastian “Cbass” Chiriboga or Harvey Wirht on cajon and percussion. There is no bass player nor drummer. The continuously driving cajon and percussion produce varieties of Brazilian rhythms. When the guitar that suggests Miles’ Agharta era faces Honshuku’s and Ikeda’s front line, a surreal sound image is produced and gives a totally new sound to the familiar standard songs. A beautiful sound of “Nem Um Talvez” composed by Hermeto Pascoal on track 9 seems to be the key to this album. Hermeto joined Miles’ “Live-Evil” (1970) and wrote this piece as well as “Little Church” for Miles. A box set of this session was released later and 4 more tracks by Hermeto were released. Honshuku has published an insightful analysis of this piece (jazztokyo.org). It shows Honshuku’s, as a performer as well as a scholar, deep understanding of and love for the genius Hermeto who does not belong to any genre. The article is well beyond an ordinal jazz study article.
When Honshuku was enrolled to New England Conservatory of Music, he became an assistant to George Russell. Later he became an assistant director as well as a member of Russell’s Living Time Orchestra. Honshuku is probably the one and only Japanese artist who practices Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept in the real world. Racha Fora successfully blends abstract elements of Brazilian rhythms and Russell, Miles, Hermeto and Dave Liebman.
This album is a full of excitement and discovery of new sound. Racha Fora gave an amazing show on Tokyo Jazz Festival in 2015. We all look for their 2017 tour with the recording members this October.
Midwest Record
Still showing his love for Miles, still showing his love for finding creativity where you d least expect it and still going for broke on multi faceted mash ups, Honshuku s third outing with this ensemble gives you the jolt you had when discovering the world sides of McLaughlin and Zappa, among others, but the jolt you feel is all his own. A skilled writer, player and interpreter, his music knows no walls and almost knows no bounds. A tasty, wild and restless release that totally has it all on the ball, as you would expect from a one time George Russell sidekick.
