“ghostly, poetic sound filling the air with great beauty.” ― Philip Johnson, The Independent
“a fresh approach to improvised music… Adventuresome and rewarding.” — Stuart Kremsky, IAJRC Journal
Trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura’s newest Gato Libre album, Sleeping Cat, is part of an ambitious yearlong marathon of multiple new releases by the Japanese brass player. Available exclusively on Bandcamp
(https://natsukitamura.
The group includes Satoko Fujii (Tamura’s spouse) on accordion and Yasuko Kaneko on trombone. Working remotely with Kaneko was “very easy and so smooth,” Tamura says. “I sensed that we could make great music by exchanging files, and I was right. Satoko and I recorded together then sent the music to Yasuko.”
He also sent the sheet music and instructions by email. He indicated which sections were for her solos, where other solo and duo sections occurred, and when to play the theme. “Yasuko recorded almost perfect,” Tamura said. “I edited just two notes.”
With their beautiful mix of tone color, texture, and simple melody, compositions like “Sleeping Cat” and “Running Cat” are wonderful realizations of Tamura’s sound world. Purring trombone sounds, trumpet whinnies, and clusters of notes from the accordion dovetail neatly with Tamura’s affecting melodies on “Walking Cat” and “Laughing Cat.” Tempos are often leisurely and the trio seems to meander, but make no mistake, pieces such as “Walking Cat” and “Eating Cat” are played with intensity and purpose. Each delicately balanced piece is a seamless whole, loosely structured, but in a way that sets trio free.
Tamura began his busy year of recording in April with Eclectic by motsure, his duo with Yoshino, who plays the biwa, a teardrop shaped Japanese lute. Yoshino plays the ancient instrument in an entirely contemporary style, and its brittle textures and explosively rhythmic phrases contrast starkly with Tamura’s intimate jazz melodicism in a rich and varied performance. The two released their debut album Kaikou in 2018.
Tamura will continue his musical marathon with a new album every other month for the remainder of the year:
• In August, look for a new solo album, focused on Tamura’s one-of-a-kind vocalizing. Expect the unexpected, with Tamura’s blend of mysterious, often whimsically comic, vocal sounds and serious music making. “Voice has always been an adjunct to my work,” Tamura says. “So this time I decided to put the spotlight on the voice.”
• Coming in October is a new composition for five trumpets. A first for Tamura, the unique group will record the new music live in concert. Tamura has enlisted Ali Morimoto, Masafumi Ezaki, Nobuki Yamamoto, Rabito Arimoto, fellow trumpeters from Kobe and Osaka, each of whom is a strong creative force in his respective city’s creative music scene.
• Tamura’s busy year concludes in December with another live concert recording, a duet with drummer Ittetsu Takemura. An exciting, versatile musician, Takemura is one of the most in-demand drummers in Japan. He is a member of pianist Satoko Fujii’s Tokyo Trio and appears on their debut CD, Moon on the Lake. “I’m going to arrange a song that I played at the FONT(Festival of New Trumpet) 20 years ago,” he says of his plans for the album.
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photo Kosuke Okahara
Trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends jazz lyricism with extended techniques. In 1997, he and Satoko Fujii, who is also his wife, released their first duo album, How Many? (Leo Lab). They have recorded eight CDs together, including 2021’s Keshin (Libra). Tamura’s collaborations with Fujii reveal an intense musical empathy and have garnered wide popular and critical acclaim. Kurt Gottschalk writes in the New York City Jazz Record that their rapport “feels like a secret language … It’s rare to sense this level of intuition between musicians.”
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 previous CD is Koneko (Libra), 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
In addition to appearing in many of Fujii’s ensembles, Tamura also has worked with collaborative groups. Most recently, he joined Fujii and master French composer-improvisers, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, to form the collective quartet Kaze. With five CDs to their credit since 2011, Kaze “redefines listening to music, redefines genres, redefines playing music,” according to Stef Gjissels of Free Jazz Blog.
Tamura’s category-defying abilities make him “unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today,” said Marc Chenard in Coda.
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2022 Will Yield Six New Releases by Tamura, Available Exclusively on Bandcamp