Downbeat November 2007
Akiko Tsuruga “Sweet and Funky”
By Philip Booth

Is Akiko Tsuruga’s success the sign of an ever shrinking global music community or another case of an outsider’s insights giving new life to a still-vital old genre, one too often taken for granted? How about this : Tsuruga, a New Yorker who relocated there six years ago from Osaka, Japan, uses powerhouse chops, good taste, and impeccable sense of swing and extra large ears to remind us of everything we always loves about the organ-trio tradition.
Sweet and Funky comes off llike a string of inspired blowing sessions, with the Hammond B-3 organist demonstrating why we should believe the hype about her playing and giving plenty of room to her sidemen- guitarist Eric Johnson, drummer Vince Ector and on some tracks, percussionist Wilson “Chembo” Corniel. She also possesses skills as a composer, turning in a speedy bop hear on the blues tune “Meanie Queenie”, influenced by Brother Jack McDuff (Johnson’s employed in the ‘70’s), and toasting another B-3 great, Dr. Lonnie Smith, on “DLG”, a romper-stomper livened with sudden stops.
Tsuruga demonstrates a knack for rearranging familiar pieces. Johnson’s sis-string weeps and moans before turning things over to the organist for a roaring solo on “Stormy Weather,” variously moody and demonstrative in all the right places. A soul=deep “Saving All My Love For You” opens with an intro suggesting “killer Joe” while organ and guitar share bits of the melody on “Where Is The Love.” “Polka Dots And Moonbeams” is reborn as a bossa nova. An uptempo “Broadway” will send listeners home smiling, a pleasantly warm nightcap for one of the year’s sleeper discs.