Miho Hazama, born in Japan, works between New York City, where she now lives, and Europe where she is chief conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band and guest conductor of Metropole Orkest in The Netherlands. Imaginary Visions comprises seven original compositions by Hazama played with exacting precision by the Danish Radio Big Band (whose previous conductors have included Thad Jones, Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely).

Miho’s background is in classical music, which is perhaps betrayed by the fact that orchestral effect predominates and other than ‘Mimi’s Groove’, the band seem to relish orchestral complexity. There is a tendency to applaud this sort of writing in current big band composition, with the result that any innovation appears more an expansion of the tradition than a step into the future. Like many of the great radio big bands in Europe, the Danish Radio Band, on this album least, appears more a touchstone of craft rather than creativity. Fresh discoveries are rare and when they do appear seem, more often than not, new revelations of old truths. 'I Said Cool, You Said…What’ has a puzzlingly over-clever intro and seems more about orchestration as a thing-in-itself — superficially engaging but lacking depth. Too often pieces like ‘Mingle Mangle Goody Bag’ or ‘Your Scenery Story’ are over burdened by orchestral effect at the expense of content and narrative flow.