Review on Midwest Record by Chris Spector – July 2022

YUKA MITO/Love in the City: The sassy, swinging thrush reconvenes her original Allan Farnham Covid interrupted trio with a few ringers and a bigger dose of swing.  Covering the water front in a way that’s clearly more club than cabaret, the knowledge, depth and appreciation for the form make this really pop.  A winner that holds it’s own against all comers.

Review by Gino Moratti, Artistic Director-Jazz at Kitano – October 2013

“Ms Yuka Mito’s performance at Jazz at Kitano on 10/17/13 was superb, she captured the audience with her soulful sound on ballads and her swinging uptempo tunes.  Yuka’s program consisted of a nice mixture of medium to uptempo tunes,  ballads, sambas and some jazz standards done with a Latin feel all performed wonderfully”. Bravo Yuka !…..

Review on All About Jazz by Edward Blanco – February 2012

Time After Time, Yuka Mito’s second solo album, shines new light on oft-recorded songs from The Great American Songbook, adding three pop tunes and one original for a tasteful project from a Japanese vocalist with a love for jazz. Now based in New York, Mito divides her performance time between the Tokyo and New York jazz scenes. A gritty contralto and ever-so-slight accent makes her approach even more unique.

Latin jazz pianist Chiemi Nakai provides the arrangements for the title track, Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” and “Sing Sing Sing-It Don’t Mean A Thing” medley, while pianist Allen Farnham—who performs here—pens the arrangements to a host of other songs. The album begins with a sizzling rendition of Irving Berlin’s classic “Cheek to Cheek” complementing Mito’s aggressive voice with the band’s sprite instrumental work, also featuring bassist Dean Johnson and drummer Tim Horner. Farnham’s terrific version of Ned Washington’s time-honored “On Green Dolphin Street” includes some unexpected but well-placed scatting, supported by an excellent piano solo…. Read More