SATOKO FUJII & NATSUKI TAMURA

ALOFT

Libra Records

Natsuki Tamura, trumpet/composer; Satoko Fujii, piano/composer.

Pianist and composer, Satoko Fujii has united once again with trumpeter, Natsuki Tamura on their ninth duo project.  This “Aloft” album celebrates nearly thirty years of working together.  When you have made music with someone that many years, there is a distinctive understanding and ease.  Together, they create some of the most original, unique, and improvised compositions that blossom from genres like classical, rock, contemporary, and traditional Japanese music, combined with the freedom of American jazz.

They begin quietly and slowly on the first tune titled, “Migration.”  Fujii pedals the piano furiously and leans towards bell-like tones that tick-tock, mimicking a clock’s pendulum.  Her music reflects the European classical style at first, but soon develops into a more energy driven arrangement, growing in intensity once Natsuki Tamura joins her on trumpet. He disappears at various moments of creation, letting the piano take flight.  When he feels the time is right, Tamura re-enters. Satoko Fujii ends the piece quietly solo, the same way she began it.

On Track #2, “Wintering” sound effects remind me of a winter storm. These, most likely squeezed from the bell of the trumpet, but Fujii often reaches inside the grand piano to pluck the strings and cause effects. Then Fujii assertively touches the piano keys, teases us with arpeggio melodies that fall like cascading mountain waterfalls.  For this project, they didn’t talk about the music before they played it. They just jumped in, like skydivers.

“We just decided to play something.  Natsuki listens to me very carefully and respects my playing so much, but he has a very different sensibility and means of expression.  We listen carefully to each other, but at the same time, we both understand that contrast and surprise are also important,” Satoko Fujii clarifies their creative process.

Here is experimental music full of drama, totally improvised but strangely balanced.  On “Traveling Birds” they each exhibit their own sense of flight.  The trumpet chirps and spews out one-note deliveries sporadically.  The piano seems to rise up into the air as Fujii tickles the treble register with unrelenting fingers.  Now the trumpet is more melodious, but still growls, chirps, and peeps at odd intervals.  They grow the piece, note by note, chord by chord, until it bursts wide open like a flock of starlings migrating South.  They make the music fly, like doves let loose, Fujii and Tamura are “Aloft” and flying high!

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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