New CDs
from Fujii's Orchestra New York and Tamura's Gato Libre offer fresh, compelling
music from longtime working bands, to be
released May 27, 2014 on Libra Records.
Pianist-composer
Satoko Fujii and trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura, the most boundlessly
creative husband-wife team in new jazz, are each renowned for the depth and
variety of their music. Between them, they have recorded with more than 25
different ensembles to encompass the full range of their creativity. But for
their latest releases, they both return to longstanding groups. Fujii's Shiki
is the ninth release with her New York Orchestra to appear over the last 18
years. Tamura convenes a slightly reconfigured Gato Libre, his working quartet
since 2005, for DuDu, their fifth release. The surroundings may be familiar but
the music launches fearlessly into the unknown.
Shiki is
dominated by the 40-minute title piece, a vast, eventful composition on which
Fujii reaches for "something beyond," she says. "I wanted to
paint a picture that extends beyond its canvas. I composed for life, which has
many stages and changes and dramas." The title, which means "four
seasons," suggests the changeability of the composition, one of the most
monumental musical architectures Fujii has ever constructed. Written and
improvised parts occur in a wide range of combinations-from unaccompanied solos
to collective improvisations, from completely written passages to integration
of one or more soloist and composition.
Soloists include some of the foremost
new jazz innovators in New York, including saxophonists Tony Malaby and Ellery
Eskelin, trumpeters Herb Robertson and Steven Bernstein, and trombonist Curtis
Hasselbring and Joe Fielder. Two other pieces, Fujii's prayerful "Gen
Himmel," a tribute to the late bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu, and Tamura's comically
antic, "Bi Ga Do Da," round out one of the most varied and
adventurous CDs in the orchestra's storied career.
"This
New York orchestra is like a miracle for me," Satoko says. "These
great musicians give me such inspiration to compose and they contribute their
own creativity as well. When I compose, I think about the band's sound and it
brings out so much of my own creativity. I grow as an artist each time I work
with them."
Tamura
was unsure of the fate of Gato Libre after the unexpected death of its bassist
Koreyasu, a founding member of the quartet and an important voice in the
group's sound. After deciding to keep the band going, Tamura auditioned several
new musicians in concert, looking for the right person to help the band
continue. "When Yasuko Kaneko performed with the band it felt right,"
he says, "Her trombone timbre matched the band well and she has a sweet
and wonderful personality." Gato Libre was reborn.
DuDu
(Libra), the new configuration's first recording, shows not only how well Kaneko
has fit into the group, but also how much her presence has allowed Tamura to
take the band in new directions. Tamura's compositions and the quartet's
performance display the same careful attention to group sound and balance as
before, but there are different sounds and new rhythmic possibilities opened up
by the trombonist's mellow, subtly textured approach.
Tamura's arrangements of
the title track, "Scramble," and "Rainy Day" keep the group
wheeling through different instrumental combinations for slow, kaleidoscopic
shifts in timbre. "Gato" showcases many sides of Kaneko's playing,
from the melodically inventive unaccompanied solo that opens the track to the
nuanced sounds that complement Tamura in a duet section.
Tamura's solo on
"Nanook" keeps firmly within the spirit of the composition while
looking for new ways to express that spirit, blending calm lyricism with stormy
sound abstractions. On "Cirencester," guitarist Kazuhiko Tsumura
etches his taut lines on silence, backed by discrete ensemble chords and in
duet with Fujii's accordion. Fujii is often a self-effacing presence in the
ensemble, yet she perfectly captures the essence of each piece, from her
introspective, dissonant musings on "Rainy Day," to her whimsical and
frenetic playing on "Mouse." Once again, Tamura's compositions
effortlessly incorporate references to folk traditions including Eastern Europe
and flamenco, as well as jazz for a rich, slightly surreal, and unpredictable
music.
Critics
and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most
original voices in jazz today. She's "a virtuoso piano improviser, an
original composer and a band-leader who gets the best collaborators to
deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on nearly 60 albums as a
leader or co-leader, the Japanese native (now based in Berlin) synthesizes
jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock and Japanese folk music into an
innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. Her most recent group,
the Satoko Fujii New Trio with bassist Todd Nicholson and drummer Takashi
Itani, released their debut recording, Spring Storm in 2013. "It is
tempting to say the very focused, often gorgeous and always thought-provoking
Spring Storm Š is her best work to date," wrote Dan McClenaghan in All
About Jazz.
Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently
creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including the ma-do quartet, the
Min-Yoh Ensemble, and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer
Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. She has also established herself as one of the
world's leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Since 1996, she has
released a steady stream of acclaimed releases for large ensemble and in 2006 she
simultaneously released four big band albums: one from her New York ensemble,
and one each by three different Japanese bands. Her ultimate goal: "I
would love to make music that no one has heard before."
Natsuki
Tamura is internationally recognized for a unique vocabulary that blends
extended techniques with jazz lyricism. "As unconventional as he may be,
Natsuki Tamura is unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on
the scene today," notes Marc Chenard in Coda magazine. Throughout his career,
this unpredictable virtuoso has led bands with radically different approaches.
Most recently, he has led First Meeting, a quartet featuring pianist Fujii that
explores extremes of sound abstraction and formal fragmentation. Since 2005,
Tamura has focused on the intersection of European folk music and jazz with
Gato Libre. The quartet's poetic, quietly surreal performances have been
praised for their "surprisingly soft and lyrical beauty that at times
borders on flat-out impressionism," says Rick Anderson in CD Hotlist.
In
contrast, the Natsuki Tamura Quartet, an earlier band led by the constantly
exploring trumpeter, was a high-energy noise rock-jazz fusion group of
overwhelming power. Since 1997, his ongoing duet with Fujii has recorded five
CDs and won accolades from critics and audiences alike. In addition to the
intimate duo performances, Tamura collaborates on many of Fujii's projects. He
and Fujii are also members of Kaze, a collaborative quartet with French
musicians trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins.
Whether
in new bands or in well established ones, Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura
always push themselves and their music to new heights. Their two latest CDs are
no exceptions.
