Born of a conversation in the back of a car on the way to record the landmark quartet album Sparks with Steve Hirsch and William Parker, Polkadots & Moonbeams is the first album for pianist Eri Yamamoto and Chad Fowler. But it doesn’t come across like a beginning. Instead, it sounds like we’re overhearing a conversation between dear friends who are at the point of finishing each other’s sentences.
Fowler’s liner notes claim these songs were improvised, but it’s difficult to believe on the evidence of your ears. Cue up “Russian Dragon,” a sprightly, spontaneously composed folk song on which Fowler follows Yamamoto’s frisky comp chords like he’s reading a score. Or check out ballads “When You Die You Become Sentient Energy” and “The Things We’ll Miss,” both of which seems to have beamed in from the pair’s collective unconscious – “Things” is especially gorgeous. “Midnight Mourning Morning Mirth,” “He Always Knew He’d Be a Preacher,” and the wry “We Can’t Dance, Can We?” kicks up some serious blues dust, letting the pair improvise over familiar and comfortable grooves.
The program is bookended by two through-composed tunes, both keyed in on Fowler’s life: “Ash,” a tribute to the saxist’s recently deceased father, and celebrated songwriter Johnny Burke’s title cut, a classic ballad played at Fowler’s wedding. It’s a testament to Fowler and Yamamoto’s chemistry and talent that they sound of a piece with the improvisations they surround. After spinning Polkadots & Moonbeams, one can’t help but think that a lifelong musical partnership has been born.
