Programs

Yusef Lateef: Autophysiopsychic (Variations for piano)

"Pianist Taka Kigawa followed, and began Lateef’s Autophysiopsychic (variations for piano) 2012. A meditative entrance led the audience through a softly lyrical vision quest; a dreamscape wherein wondrous things are revealed, and the witness to these visions takes it in, not worrying about an understanding that will come later; or not at all. Nothing is startling or overwhelming; it is all a beauty in a language the soul forgot, and tries to remember." - Dawoud Kringle, DooBeeDooBeeDoo NY

"... were followed by a performance by the world renowned Taka Kigawa on piano, who played the world premiere of Lateef's 'Autophysiopsychic (variations for piano) 2012.' This piece was a single work of aleatory music. The solo piano offered dissonant chordal blocks swimming in atonal ambient space. It was a shadowy number at a freer and slower tempo than the tempi of the music performed earlier in the evening. The harmony bounced in and out of tonal logic, giving the listener sound bytes of both chaotic clusters that cause the hair to stand on end and creamy sonic textures. - Scott Krane, All About Jazz

"On the first (and only) movement of 'Autophysiopsychic Variations for Piano' Taka Kigawa offers waltzing shoulders in his graceful pianissimos, yet his refusal to take the easy rhetorical way out reveals felicities and subtleties that might pass by unacknowledged if one is not paying attention to the nuanced changes in emotion and expression." - Raul Da Gama, JazzdaGama