The liberty and experimentation of the 1970s still hold a nostalgic place in the memory of jazz pianist and composer Tomoko Ohno. It is a period, she says, that "most people remember fondly."

Finding herself two decades later living in an America that has turned steadily more conservative, she felt it was important to recall the "freedom" of the decade.

So with the new millennium approaching and people looking back as much as forward, Ohno has chosen to focus on the '70s for her new CD, "Affirmation," released Nov. 25. A mix of contemporary standards and four original works, the album pays tribute to one of the decade's musical innovations -- jazz fusion -- as well as its social climate.

Most of the recording is a compilation of hits from the era, starting with the title track, written by George Benson, and Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower." This version of Wes Montgomery's "Road Song," with a notable bass solo, is one take that is bound to replay itself in your head.

The trio, who came together specially for this recording, make a fluid combination. Ohno is paid the ultimate compliment by the presence of bassist Rufus Reid in the trio. Now retired, Reid was Ohno's professor six years ago. He particularly shines on "Spirit of Summer." Listen also, in "Tiger in the Rain," for drummer Tim Horner's shimmering, stealthy appearance as the feline.

While the inspired mixing of jazz and rock inflections in the late '60s and early '70s had great promise, and fusion has maintained a dedicated following through today, the genre has also been discredited for falling into a self-reflexive rut.

If there is one disappointment in "Affirmation," it is that here, too, the praiseworthy talent assembled drifts at times toward easy-listening mode.

Classically trained from childhood, Ohno performed jazz piano with her university club as a law studies student in Japan. After graduation she decided to focus on music full time and enrolled in New Jersey's William Patterson College in 1990, where in her senior year she won the Student Award for Performance. After graduating, she studied composition intensively and in 1997 released her first CD, "Powder Blue."

In her compositions in this latest offering, she maintains her focus on the '70s. Thematically, it was the foundation for the meditative "Patterns in Marble," in which, she says, her aim is to evoke the decade's contradictions, patterned into memory like the contrasting shades of the stone.

Musically, it plays out more obviously in the foot-tapping "Like, Far Out" or the electrified "King Fisher." The former is a tribute to Keith Jarrett ("one of the symbols of the '70s for me," says Ohno). In the latter she takes to the electric keyboard -- and to a deceivingly complicated 7/4 beat -- in an exercise modeled on the work of pianist, composer and conductor Claire Fisher.

Although Ohno returns to perform in Japan once or twice yearly, she is fully acclimated to her life in the United States, which she finds optimal for her music.

"Jazz is originally from America, so they really know about jazz, much more than anyone else in the world," she says. "It's a great place for a jazz musician to be."

Ohno attributes this both to her fellow musicians and her audiences.

"I found that there's so many different kinds of Americans. If I do some kind of library gig on Sunday in Westchester County, it's very wealthy people here, and the audience is very similar to a Japanese audience.

"But if I play some jazz in the jazz club in Jersey City, New Jersey, and [with] mostly, like, a black audience . . . they go just crazy. Each tune or each solo they just yell the musician's name -- 'Go girl! Tomoko!' -- and it's really fun, because there's no place like that in Japan."

But big changes in her personal life have affected her music as well. The birth of her son Willy (on Charlie Parker's birthday, Ohno is quick to point out) in 1998 inspired not only the bubbly composition "Willy's World."

Ohno returned to her New Jersey home two days after her son's birth, "and right after I got home, I sat in front of the piano and I played a little bit," she recalls. "It felt like the piano sounded much more beautiful than before." The influence, she says, has made her look at the music she plays with new eyes.

But as Ohno looks ahead, she also plans to return to the treasures in jazz standards. While mining the genre for musical challenges, she keeps her eye on new possibilities. "Each year," she notes, "I feel like I like music more and more."