Readers of the blog do not need any introduction to the work of partners in
music and life – prolific Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter
Natsuki Tamura. Equally prolific Japanese drummer-bandleader-label owner
Tatsuya Yoshida is known for his Ruins-related projects and countless
prog-fusion-experimental-polyrhythmic jazz that he leads, his collaborations
with Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide and John Zorn,
his great love to the French prog-zehul band Magma or his ability to
condense all the discography of YES into a few minutes
medley.
Amanojaku 天邪鬼 – Bishamonten 毘沙門天 (Libra/Magaibutsu, 2024)
Amanojaku (天邪鬼, which can be translated as an antagonistic demon in Japanese
folklore) is a new trio of pianist Satoko Fujii, who adds a frightening
“death voice” on one piece, her partner, trumpeter-percussionist Natsuki
Tamura, and drummer-vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida. Bishamonten 毘沙門天 (Vaisravana,
the (guardian god of Buddhism) is the debut album of this trio – released
only on Bandcamp as an apéritif before an official album, which was formed
during the Covid-19 pandemic, initially as a free improvising band “with a
Japanese taste”, but developed into a band that juggles between improvised
and composed parts.
The album was recorded live at Tokyo’s Shibuya Koen-dori Classics and
Kichijoji Mandala in June and February 2024. Tamura conceptualized the
trio’s irreverent approach by saying that his songs are “like farts” and
Fujii and Yoshida gladly embraced his eccentric vision for Amanojaku. There
is certainly an exotic and mysterious Japanese flavor to this band with its
hyperactive, hyper-fast, and subversive ritualistic veins, that restlessly
keep swinging between the intense and roaring to the lyrical and emotional
poles, often within the same pieces. But miraculously, Amanojaku succeeds in
choreographing the strong-minded personalities of Fujii, Tamura and Yoshida
into wild but balanced, possessed-by-friendly demons dances (and other godly
collisions), and making its powerful sound much bigger than that of a trio
that plays only acoustic instruments. It ends with the enigmatic, quiet
incantations of “Bonnoh”.
Kira Kira – Live (Alister Spence Music, 2024)
Kira Kira extends the ongoing collaboration of Fujii and Tamura with
Australian pianist-composer Alister Spence (including duos with Fujii, with
Fujii Orchestra Kobe and in the Scottish sax player Raymond MacDonald’s
International Big Band). The first incarnation of Kira Kira, documented on
Bright Force (Libra, 2018), added drummer Ittetsu Takemura (who plays in
Fujii Tokyo Trio). Live, recorded live during a tour of Kira Kira at Shibuya
Koen-dori Classics and Jazz Inn Lovely in Nagoya in January 2024, replaced
Takemura with Yoshida, who recorded and mixed the music.
Spence plays in Kira Kira the vintage Fender Rhodes with effects pedals and
preparations. Fujii also adds preparations to her piano. The atmosphere is
more spacious, still hyperactive and dramatic with a vibe of
anything-could-happen-anytime but with enough room for distinct, improvised
solo roles. Spence’s Fender Rhodes colors the music with fusion flavors and
intensifies Fujii piano playing while Tamura and Yoshida push to more
energetic edges. Yoshida’s “Vertical Rainbow” highlights his boundless
energy and sounds that he is all over the drum set, never letting the music
lose its manic, polyrhythmic force. Fujii’s “Bolognaise” shifts from the
eccentric-ironic, fragmented and restless commotion, articulated best by
Tamura and Yoshida’s wordless gibberish, to the contemplative and lyrical,
delivered beautifully in Fujii and Tamura’s reserved solos, and ends with a
powerful coda. Spence’s “Green Energy” begins in a ghostly-mysterious,
resonant spirit that patiently spirals and widens its wave-like attacks.
Tamura’s “Cat Parade” (he is well known feline lover) is the most playful
and uplifting piece here with its propulsive grooves. The album ends with
the free improvised “Kite” that cements the strong, collective sound and
grooves of Kira Kira.
Satoko Fujii Quartet – Dog Days of Summer (Libra, 2024)
Dog Days of Summer follows the Bandcamp-only, live album of Fujii Quartet –
with Tamura, Yoshida and electric bass player Takeharu Hayakawa (a long-time
member of reed player Kazutoki Umezu’s Doctor Umezi Band and Kiki Band),
After Fifteen Years, Live At Buddy
, recorded at Tokyo’s Buddy in July 2023. This quartet, known also as the
Vulcan Quartet after its debut album and its bombastic dynamics, released
four albums between 2001 and 2007, and surprisingly, became again a working
band.
The live album focused on Fujii’s old book of compositions for the quartet.
Dog Days of Summer was recorded nine months later at Orpheus Recording
Studios in Tokyo in April 2024 and features seven new compositions of Fujii
for the now wiser and more experienced quartet that do not attempt to
replicate the earlier, fusion-rock dynamics of the quartet. The quartet
still has direct, energetic dynamics and still collides the aggressive,
powerhouse rhythm section of Yoshida and Hayakawa, with his effects-laden
fuzzy bass, and the more understated but no less powerful melodic veins of
Fujii and Tamura, but now the quartet plays Fujii’s complex compositions in
a more disciplined and tight manner that leaves more room for the strong
personalities of the four musicians. Fujii lets Hayakawa become the backbone
of the quartet with his muscular yet precise playing (listen to his
beautiful solo on the title piece) but wisely choreographs and balances the
kinetic rhythm section with the subtle, lyrical solos of her and Tamura,
both sound more jazz-oriented than ever. One of the most justified reunions
of this century.