Otoe | Crystal Rose

Otoe | Crystal Rose
by Marvin Dickey

Candy Dulfer, Pamela Williams, Mindy Adair: BEWARE! There’s a new sax player coming. But due to the fact she’s in Japan, your safe for now. And her latest effort is sure to cause some commotion here in America. Otoe has been on the Japanese music scene for a while now. She has been touring Japan the last few years, and “Crystal Rose” is her first CD as a solo artist. People are really surprised at the amount of funk and I mean funk coming from Otoe’s sax. She has a very whimsical personality which shows in her playing and performance, with many venues selling out to see her live show.

The cd starts off with the midtempo funk song “Ca ni ikou!” which is sure to get your head nodding. The title track “Crystal Rose” is nice mellow romantic song and Otoe plays the song with heartfelt passion, The other slow track is a cover of Chaka Khan’s “Through the fire”, which is played with the same intensity as Chaka sung it back in 1990, but just a little bit looser which allows Otoe to improvise. “Southwick” which is a cover of a Maceo Parker song, Otoe put the funk out there, and also shows how versatile she is. Tomoharu Hani & Chris Silverstein, add solos to this track. The hottest track on this proejct, Otoe went basically old school, is the track “Attention Please” where Otoe and crew just let loose. Scott Latham’s drum solo is so intense, he makes me want to learn to play drums and all the members have a chance to showcase their talent.

The production of this 6 song cd is tight and to get a taste of Otoe live, check out this video recorded at Hadows in Osaka Japan with her rendition of Stevie Wonders “I wish”…

Otoe- Alto Saxophone
Scott Latham- Drums
Chris Silverstein- Bass
Tomoharu Hani- Keyboards
Tom Kanematsu- Guitar

Marvin Dickey
The Urban Music Scene

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