SANA NAGANO
If life is about how we react to what is thrown at us, Sana Nagano chose wisely in the summer of 2020. After nearly half a year of anguished isolation, the violinist made an album of honest, graceful free improvisations with two of her mentors. Anime Mundi, out October 28th on 577 Records, pairs her with pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy Martin, veteran players at home in the unknown. And though recorded during the stressful first year of Covid, there is joy and curiosity in the music. It’s just mixed in with sorrow.
“I wanted to document how rough I felt internally and how much I cared about people, that I always had before the Covid,” says Nagano. “But then all of a sudden, friends and people became such a very precious thing. It was always precious, but I just never knew that there was a time that I can’t see them for such a long time.”
The leader of her punk-jazz improvising unit Smashing Humans, as well as Go: Organic Orchestra, led by Adam Rudolph, and VEER Quartet, led by fellow violinist Sarah Bernstein, Nagano approaches things with sincerity and openness. The Brooklyn-based string player joined Berger’s Improvisers Orchestra after a brief introduction at the Jazz Gallery in 2011. An instrument was mentioned and an invitation was offered.
“I saw the show and I talked to Karl and it was just the easiest process, actually,” recalls Nagano. “I just said, ‘I play violin,’ and then he was like, ‘Oh, then bring it the next time.’ With a smile and twinkle in his eyes.”
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