Players - Downbeat

Satoko Fujii/
Natsuki Tamura
Chun
LIBRA 122-022
AAAA
Satoko Fujii
Orchestra
Nagoya
Sanrei »
BAKAMO 007
AAAA
Satoko Fujii
Orchestra
New York
Summer Suite
LIBRA 215-023
AAAA
The cover image—paired heads, profiled nose-to-nose, inches apart, their
vaguely androgynous, almost-symmetrical features rendered with a minimum
of calligraphically precise strokes, the negative space between their
faces and pressed-together hands revealing an enfolding, winged spirit—
says much about the synchronous ambiance of Chun. It’s a program of
nine compositions by Satoko Fujii, which she performs on piano in duet
with her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura.
Fujii is a sonic explorer, and for this project—her fourth duo recording
with Tamura, one of more than 40 she’s realized since 1996—she frames
Japanese vernaculars within post-’60s jazz and post-Webern postulations.
She sometimes sets up slow-build soundscapes and sometimes goes for
theme-and-variation off of an initial unison. Either context offers ample
space for informed dialogue. Fujii’s orchestral technique, clear chromatic
lines and “prepared piano” devices contrast effectively with Tamura’s
arsenal of extended techniques, which he executes with a warm, vocalized
tone throughout the trumpet’s full range.
Fujii shares composer duties with Tamura and guitarist Yashuhiro Usui
on Sanrei, on which she eschews keyboard duties and conducts the 15piece
Orchestra Nagoya, a Japanese ensemble of fluent polylinguists,
through a seven-piece program. The charts reference tropes from avantrock,
fusion, American and Japanese speculative jazz, and traditional
Japanese melodies. The musicians follow the example of Usui—a deft
guitarist and skronk-producer—and taiko-to-fusion drummer Hisamine
Kondo in executing the expansive, precisely delineated colors, textures
and timbres contained in the charts. They also infuse them with tremendous
energy. There is much dialogue among the sections, creating an
anthemic and occasionally surreal feel. They blend vocabulary that one
might associate with the ’70s and ’80s units of Gil Evans and Sun Ra with
logic structures reminiscent of the orchestral playbooks of Anthony
Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams to realize Fujii’s fresh imperatives.
Similar strategies prevail on Summer Suite, the seventh recording by
Fujii’s Orchestra New York, an ongoing entity since 1997. The leader’s
intimacy with the idiosyncratic tonal personalities of her personnel (the
trumpet section, for example, comprises Tamura, Herb Robertson, Steven
Bernstein and Dave Ballou) and formal control over the raw materials
upon which they improvise is apparent on the title track, a kaleidoscopic
39-minute tour de force in which events ebb and flow across the dynamic
spectrum. The sections interpret the scored passages with a breathe-as-one
quality, gestating, propelling and sustaining far-flung solos by drummer
Aaron Alexander, alto saxophonist Oscar Noriega, trombonist Joey Sellers
and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby. —Ted Panken
Chun: Tokyo Rush Hour; Nudibranch; Infrared; Chun; Stone Flowers; Curt Response; Ultraviolet;
Spiral Staircase; Triangle. (54:25)
Sanrei: Gokaku; Eaves; Blueprint; Kondo Star; Syogetsu; Sankaku; Sanrei. (68:05)
Summer Suite: Summer Suite; Sanrei; In The Town You Don’t See On The Map. (54:28)
»
Ordering info: www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~libra
76 DOWNBEAT April 2009
Burnt Sugar the
Arkestra Chamber
Making Love To The Dark Ages
LIVEWIRED MUSIC 1002
AAA 1 /2
Triangulating Afro-futurism and
Butch Morris’ conduction cue lexicon
is a heady proposition on paper, but
Burnt Sugar ringleader Greg Tate’s
approach yields fluid, funk-fortified
music. While there are moments that flash with antecedents—usually
located somewhere in the mid-’70s, but reaching back occasionally as far
as the ’40s—Burnt Sugar has its own sound. There’s a cadre of horn players
who cover the post-Ornette Coleman waterfront with ease (including
Matana Roberts and Avram Fefer), rhythm sections who can lock into a
groove but also suddenly pivot, and a sufficient array of textures (some
emanating from Tate’s laptop) and searing walk-ons by Vijay Iyer and
Vernon Reid that morph the ensemble’s sound from track to track.
Burnt Sugar is at its elastic best during extended work-outs like the second
section of “Chains And Water,” “Thorazine/81” and the title piece.
However, some of the album’s high points occur in more tightly scripted
pieces like the first part of “Chains And Water,” a throbbing, harmonicalaced
holler featuring Lisala, a compelling singer. But there are also a few
miscues in the more structured passages. In the boppish tag that concludes
“Chains And Water,” Lewis Barnes’ trumpet is fractured by a psychedelic
mix. A synthesized ostinato threatens to stifle the album-ending title piece,
but violinist Mazz Swift prevails with a synthesis of Leroy Jenkins and
Papa John Creach, making a lasting impression. —Bill Shoemaker
Making Love To The Dark Ages: Chains And Water; Thorazine/81; Love To Tical; Dominata;
Making Love To The Dark Ages. (75:30)
»
Ordering info: livewiredmusic.org
Lee Shaw Trio
Live In Graz
ARTISTS RECORDING COLLECTIVE 2062
AAA 1 /2
Recorded at the Café Stockwerk in
Graz, Austria, in 2007, Live In Graz
showcases the octogenarian pianist
Lee Shaw and her trio. Shaw’s highly
cohesive trio consists of bassist
Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel, who play together so well and
change direction so deftly that it’s as if they share a collective consciousness.
But this does not mean their individual voices are suppressed.
Syracuse shows off his melodicism and inventiveness on several lengthy
solos, most notably on “Easy Walker,” “Song Without Words” and the
lovely waltz “Rain Threads.”
Shaw has a clean, delicate touch, with which she pulls the notes from
the piano rather than pushing them out from it in predominantly singlenote
melodic lines. The trio’s every utterance contains constant dialog and
give and take: Siegel surges with Shaw’s lines and urges her on with creative
cymbal and snare work, Syracuse often sits on pedal points to help
Shaw build tension, and she is more than happy laying out, putting the
spotlight on her colleagues.
A supplemental DVD includes tour photos, a bonus track from the concert,
video footage from the trio’s Reulingen, Germany, concert, as well as
interviews with Shaw and the trio. —Chris Robinson
Live In Graz: Easy Walker; Song Without Words; Elegy; Rain Threads; Street Of Dreams; Foots;
Stan’s Song; Night Mist Blues. (77:29)
Personnel: Lee Shaw, piano; Rich Syracuse, bass; Jeff Siegel, drums.
»
Ordering info: artistsrecordingcollective.info