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SUMITO
ARIYOSHI aka ARIYO by
David Whiteis
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 Since
he first arrived in Chicago in 1984, I have seen Mr. Ariyoshi in performance
in blues venues all over the city. I have observed him in electric
blues settings, small-group ensembles, and performing solo. I have
also heard his 1998 CD, Piano Blues, on the P-Vine label. Mr. Ariyoshi
has been hired as a regular pianist by several Chicago blues artists
of international stature: these include guitarist  Jimmy
Rogers, who was one of Muddy Waters' earliest Chicago colleagues and
played a significant role in forging what is now known as the postwar
Chicago blues style; and guitarist  Otis
Rush, who was seminal in the development of the electrified, musically
aggressive late-50s, early-60s Chicago style. The late vocalist  Valerie
Wellington, who was internationally feted as one of Chicago's most
promising young talents before her untimely death in 1993, also hired
Mr. Ariyoshi to work in her band. The breadth of styles represented
by those artists demonstrates one of the strongest points of Mr. Ariyoshi's
musical talents: he has compendious knowledge of the rich and varied
Chicago keyboard tradition yet he imbues his playing with forward-looking,
contemporary influences and improvisational imagination. Especially
significant is his use of rhythm: while his harmonic and melodic ideas
are rooted solidly in the tradition of older-generation Chicago pianists
like  Big
Maceo,  Sunnyland
Slim, Johnnie Jones, and the still-active Pinetop Perkins, he brings
to his playing a highly energetic and often rhythmically complex propulsiveness
sometimes he seems to approach his keyboard almost like a rhythm
instrument, infusing even his most well-crafted melodic lines with
percussive intensity. In this fusion of tradition and experimentation,
Mr. Ariyoshi, like his mentors Mr. Rogers and Mr. Rush, represents
the ongoing development and evolution of the Chicago tradition. Speaking
strictly in melodic terms, 12-bar blues is a relatively simple genre,
although an expert improviser like Mr. Ariyoshi can summon a remarkable
range of colors, textures, and tonal variety from the somewhat limited
range of options made available by the form. Many of the most important
innovations in the style have been rhythmic: faster tempos, complex
polyrhythmic interplays between lead and bass voices, and skillful
insertion of additional notes and runs into the standard 12-bar form
have represented the core of many of the advances that have occurred
in Chicago blues since the  post-World
War II era. The most accomplished artists have succeeded in laying
such rhythmic and spacial innovations over melodic ideas rooted firmly
in tradition, thus achieving a finely-honed balance between musical
roots and the improviser's art. Aside from the propulsive energy and
complex right hand-left hand interplay that characterize his work,
 Mr. Ariyoshi
has developed several signature techniques that mark him as an important
innovator. One of the most striking involves suspending the penultimate
chord of a twelve-bar phrase for several bars into the next phrase
a musician would call this "delaying the turn-around" until it almost
sounds as if he has lagged irrevocably behind the beat, then sliding
effortlessly into the next phrase; the resulting sense of built-up
tension and release evokes both the sensuality of traditional blues
expression and the combination of playfulness and willful challenging
of convention that represent the essence of the bluesman's art. In
summary, it is my professional opinion that Mr. Ariyoshi has become
a vital link in this ongoing process of expanding and elaborating
upon tradition, a process that carefully retains the essential components
of heritage while bringing vital new visions to it. On a regular basis,
he shares engagements with veteran keyboardists like  Pinetop
Perkins and Detroit Jr. ,
demonstrating the similarity between his style and theirs while also
showing how his unique rhythmic sensibility and innovative approach
toward both timing and melodic structure bring fresh and contemporary
new textures to the tradition these elder statesmen represent. To
lose his presence in the Chicago blues world would be to leave a serious
gap in the ongoing continuum of this city's blues piano heritage,
from the roots to the future. |