Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura delight in each other’s music on their ninth duo album

“It seems—in the studio or on the stage—that Fujii and Tamura think as one.”
– Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“a thrilling ride for the listener” – Steve Feeney, Portland Press Herald

Aloft to be released July 12, 2024 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura have amassed quite a track record as duet partners. On their ninth duo album, Aloft, they once again find new things to say. The creativity level is as high as any of their previous eight albums, along with the assurance and maturity that comes from nearly 30 years of working together. As Fujii says, “I am amazed that we still have so many things to create together!” Tamura is equally enthusiastic about their partnership. “We both continue to explore deeper expressions and new sounds,” he said. “After years of performing together, I feel absolutely secure in a duo with her.”

Renowned for duo performances that border on the telepathic, Fujii and Tamura went into the studio with no plan except to rely on their trust and experience while improvising. They didn’t talk about the music before they played. “We just decided to play something,” says Fujii. “Natsuki listens to me very carefully and respects my playing so much but he has a very different sensibility and means of expression.” Tamura adds, “We listen carefully to each other, but at the same time we both understand that contrast and surprise are also important.”

Their differing but complementary approaches to music strike a fine-tuned balance. Tamura doesn’t improvise with a deliberate structure, while Fujii tends to bring structure when she improvises. “I like compositions played like improvised music, and improvised music that sounds like composed music,” notes Fujii. “I would like to erase the border between them.”

Consequently, the music on Aloft displays empathy and surprise in equal measure, governed by an intuitive balance between freedom and structure that comes from decades of music making. It’s hard to believe tracks such as “Migration” and “Wintering” are entirely improvised. Even though they sound so casual,  they have distinctive beginnings, middles, and conclusions. “Waiting for Dawn” and “Traveling Birds” also evolve in a very unforced way, the music seems to grow on its own. Yet there are times when the unexpected happens and is absorbed into the flow of the events. “On the Flyway” begins with an easy South African groove but grows darker and even absurd when Tamura begins talking through his trumpet. Fujii’s lyric piano inventions contrast with Tamura’s extended technique, but despite wildly different approaches the music is closely coordinated, and they collaborate without compromising their respective personal visions.

Pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, “an improviser of rumbling intensity and generous restraint” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times), is one of the most original voices in jazz today. For more than 25 years, she has created a unique, personal music that spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical, rock, and traditional Japanese music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific composer for ensembles of all sizes and a performer who has appeared around the world, she was the recipient of a 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music, in recognition of her “artistic intelligence, independence, and integrity.”

Since she burst onto the scene in 1996, Fujii has performed and recorded prolifically. In 2022, she released her 100th album as a leader. On the way to this impressive milestone, she has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music. Highlights include a piano trio with Mark Dresser and Jim Black (1997-2009), and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins (2001-2008). In addition to a wide variety of small groups of different instrumentation, Fujii also performs in a duo with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, with whom she’s recorded nine albums since 1997. She and Tamura are also one half of the international free- jazz quartet Kaze, which has released seven albums since their debut in 2011. Fujii has established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Fully a quarter of her albums have been with jazz orchestras, prompting Cadence magazine to call her “the Ellington of free jazz.”

Trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends jazz lyricism with extended techniques. In addition to appearing with many of Fujii’s projects and recordings, he is a leader in his own right. 2003 was a breakout year for Tamura as a bandleader, with the release of Hada Hada (Libra), featuring his free jazz-avant rock quartet with Fujii on synthesizer. In 2005, he made a 180-degree turn with the debut of his all-acoustic Gato Libre quartet, focusing on the intersection of European folk music and sound abstraction. Now a trio, their most recent CD is Koneko (Libra), was released in 2020. Writing in the New York City Jazz Record, Tyran Grillo said, “By turns mysterious and whimsical.”

In 1998, Tamura released the first of his unaccompanied trumpet albums, A Song for Jyaki (Leo Lab). He followed it up in 2003 with KoKoKoKe (Polystar/NatSat) and in 2021, he celebrated his 70th birthday with Koki Solo (Libra), which Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz described as “quirky fun in an age of uncertainty.”

Tamura’s category-defying abilities make him “unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today,” said Marc Chenard in Coda.

Satoko Fujii-Natsuki Tamura – Aloft

Libra Records – Catalog Number: 102-075 Recorded December 13, 2023 Release date – July 12, 2024

www.satokofujii.com/

www.natsukitamura.com/