Hugh Manwell - Guidance (March 30, 2021)

HUGH MANWELL

delivers his second project,

“Guidance”

this time taping into the Big Band sound

Big brass and high energy sum up the sounds of Hugh Manwell’s second project of 2021, Guidance. This 6 track EP combines soul, funk, & big band Jazz into a high-energy project. Hugh Manwell, a multi-instrumentalist and composer, plays Drums, Trumpet, Saxophone, Bass, Guitar, Piano, and Synths on Guidance delivering a modern twist on the classic Big Band Jazz sound. From the larger than life epic sounds of Big Time to the more slowed-down sensual vibes of “Walking On Clouds” the project will satisfy the emotional palate no matter the mood. Tap, play, close your eyes, and let Hugh Manwell give you Guidance.

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Erin Propp & Larry Roy - We Want All The Same Things (April 23, 2021 Chronograph Records)

There is nuance in the everyday; in its layers of love, joy, and hurt, and in its emotional currents ever present. Erin Propp and Larry Roy reach into the everyday and blur the edges, creating works that are at once deeply personal and achingly relatable. These are songs that take it all in, that read between the lines, that hear the subtext, that feel it, that say it out loud.

Their music rings true with nuance and power, with rare clarity and precision. Their musical abilities are tools of exacting expression, expertly honed. They reach in to resonate; calling the listener inside, sounding the overtones of our shared experience.

Erin and Larry’s debut album Courage, My Love (2012), was met with praise and acclaim. The recording won Best Jazz Album of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards (2013), and a JUNO nomination in the category of Vocal Jazz Album of the Year (2014). Erin and Larry can do it all, from charming intimate jazz club sets, to moving concert hall performances, and key arts organizations have taken note.

Erin and Larry have performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, and have opened for Gretchen Parlato at the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival.

1. Each Hidden Joy 4:25

2. Hello Morning 3:51

3. We Want All The Same Things 4:23

4. Farther On 4:17

5. Recomeçar (H. Piccoli, E. Propp) 3:47

6. The Light 4:11

7. Give Me More 4:20

8. So Far Away (Carole King) 4:56

9. Tell Him (Lauryn Hill) 5:28

10. The Nearness of You (H. Carmichael, N. Washington) 6:34

11. Angels Gather There 4:35

12. À La Claire Fontaine (Traditional) 3:45

All songs composed by Erin Propp & Larry Roy unless otherwise indicated

Larry Roy - Guitars, Dobro

Erin Propp - Vocals

Larnell Lewis - Drums

Will Bonness - Piano, Wurlitzer

Julian Bradford - Acoustic Bass (1-2, 4, 6-9)

Mike Downes - Acoustic Bass (3, 5, 10)

Karl Kohut - Acoustic Bass (11)

Rogerio Boccato - Percussion (1, 5)

Shannon Kristjanson - Flute, Alto Flute (2, 10-11)

Ken Gold - Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet (2, 10-11)

Jimmy Greene - Soprano Sax (2, 8, 11)

Steve Wilson - Alto Sax (3)

Joey Landreth - Slide Guitar (4)

Joel Green - Trombone (10-11)

Miron Rafajlović - Trumpet (10)

Derrick Gardner - Trumpet (11)

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Live chat with Mareike Wiening on March 30th with Four on the Floor

Bheki Mseleku - Beyond The Stars (March 2021 Tapestry Works)

Self-taught multi-instrumentalist and composer Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku (1955-2008), known as Bheki Mseleku, is widely considered to have been the most richly gifted South African jazz musician of his generation. Born in Durban, he moved to Johannesburg in the mid-1970s and played with groups including Spirits Rejoice, The Drive and Philip Tabane’s Malombo. In 1980, he left apartheid South Africa for exile in Europe, travelling with his close friend Eugene Skeef. (A percussionist, educator, poet and former close comrade of Steve Biko, Skeef originally produced the Beyond The Stars session, and contributes liner notes to this release.)

Bheki spent six difficult years in Stockholm before moving to London. After a triumphant debut at Ronnie Scott’s, in 1992 he would release his now classic debut album Celebration for World Circuit, before signing with Verve. He would go on to achieve worldwide recognition, recording and touring with jazz luminaries including Elvin Jones, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson and Abbey Lincoln.

Throughout his life, Bheki struggled with both his physical and mental health. He was, as Eugene Skeef puts it, ‘a conduit for the healing energy of music to flow into the world’, a gift that came at a cost. At the start of the new century, Bheki returned to live in South Africa, but just a few years later he found himself in compound difficulties: life at home had proved too hard, and he was not well. He had also lost his imported Steinway upright piano in an unwise business deal and had not been able to play. In 2003, Skeef helped him return to London, where they hoped to realign his health and rekindle his career.

Through his work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Skeef arranged for Bheki to have access to the Steinway concert grand pianos held at Henry Wood Hall. After Bheki had spent a few weeks recuperating, Skeef booked a studio session at Gateway Studios.

Beyond The Stars was the result: a stunning, solo piano suite which condenses Mseleku’s visionary overstanding of South African music into a flowing, pulsing statement in six parts. With jazzwise echoes of marabi, amahubo, maskanda and Nguni song forms binding it to the deep music of Mseleku’s Zulu heritage, Beyond The Stars provides what Blue Note recording artist Nduduzo Makhathini describes in his liner notes as ‘a divine summary’ of Bheki’s life story: ‘a sonic pilgrimage from the beautiful and organic landscapes of Durban, to the vibrant energy of London and ultimately toward the inner dimensions of one’s being.’

But releasing the album proved impossible at the time, and so the session has remained unheard. Bheki sadly passed on in 2008, without having released a new album for five years; almost two decades have now passed since any new music by him has emerged. Working with Eugene Skeef, Tapestry Works is proud to break the silence with a first issue for Bheki Mseleku’s visionary masterpiece, Beyond The Stars.

1. Cosmic Dance 06:26

2. Isango (The Gateway) 16:51

3. Izanusi (The Diviners) 06:53

4. Ekhaya 04:42

5. Light of Love 05:49

6. Transcendence 08:54

All compositions by Bheki Mseleku

Bheki Mseleku – piano, voice

Recorded on the 28 November 2003 at Gateway Studios, London

Producer – Eugene Skeef

Co-producer – Derek Johnson

Engineer – Steve Lowe

Assistant Engineer – Gurjit Dhinsa

Mastering – Colin Young at See Why Audio

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Christopher Hoffman - Asp Nimbus (March 2021 Out Of Your Head Records)

1. Discretionary 04:03

2. Dylan George 06:00

3. Asp Nimbus 03:40

4. Angles Of Influence 03:33

5. Orb 02:49

6. Non-Submersible 04:25

7. For You 03:14

8. The Heights Of Spectacle 03:46

Christopher Hoffman - cello, compositions

Bryan Carrott - vibraphone

Rashaan Carter - bass

Craig Weinrib - drums

David Virelles - piano (track 2 only)

All Compositions By Christopher Hoffman

Recorded January 8 & 9 2020 by Lily Wen at Figure 8 Studios

Produced, Mixed & Mastered By Christopher Hoffman

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Joe Morris / Damon Smith - Gusts Against Particles (May 1, 2021 Open Systems Records)

This LP is the first release for Open Systems and is a limited, hand numbered edition of 200 copies. The digital version is unlimited.

Duets are conversations, pure and simple. They can be long threads, emphatic, full of query and answer, or emotion and subtlety. At best, they have all the hallmarks and inside commentary of an old relationship, but even first-time meetings can feel like the participants have known one another for ages. You might know that feeling, too: someone you’ve been aware of and finally get to spend time with, over the minutes or hours that follow a gentle easing-in becomes a gush of ideas and rejoinders. Joe Morris (b. 1955, New Haven, CT) and Damon Smith (b. 1972, Spokane, WA) have traveled in similar improvised music circles for decades, though Gusts Against Particles is their first duo and first proper album together.

The two met in 2006 under the guise of sessions for Healing Force, a super-group CD put together by guitarist Henry Kaiser to explore the late music of Albert Ayler. At that time Smith was living in the Bay Area and cutting his teeth in its free music scene while Morris was based out East, teaching at the New England Conservatory and leading a number of harmonically and rhythmically game-changing small ensembles.

Flash forward 13 years and Smith was living and working in Boston, performing with artists like pianists Pandelis Karayorgis and Eric Zinman, drummers Ra Kalam Bob Moses and Curt Newton, trombonist Jeb Bishop, and cornetist Stephen Haynes. Just prior to the bassist’s 2019 relocation to St. Louis, a few concerts were set up with Morris alongside this studio recording. Of Morris, Smith says “I got into his work pretty soon after getting into the music. I love that he knows free jazz as well as the European traditions.

He is well versed in the harmonic language of Jimmy Lyons, which is foundational for me since I came up as [alto saxophonist] Marco Eneidi's understudy. Playing with him is more like playing with a horn player than a guitarist. It is unlike playing with [Sandy] Ewen or Kaiser. The main thing about playing with him is I am able to think and play faster and more effortlessly than on my own.”

Morris has also worked frequently as a contrabassist, though the guitar is his primary and longest-lasting mode of expression. He’s performed and recorded in duo with other legendary bassists in free music, people like William Parker, Barre Phillips, and Christian Weber, not to mention in deep dialogues with other modern instrumental travelers (eg. reedist Anthony Braxton, saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpeter Nate Wooley, pianist Matthew Shipp, and guitarist Mary Halvorson). So, there is a lot of history to reckon with, as well as a lot of instantaneous creation.

As Morris thinks back to meeting Smith and subsequent experience, he notes that “[Damon’s] playing expresses the pulse much more now on the bass than he did back then… I never generalize in any way about the particulars of anyone I play with. I listen for very specific things no matter who I play with, and I respond and interact in very specific ways depending on what I hear from them and what they do in response to me.”

In terms of the dialogic meat, Morris and Smith are both masters of an expanded but very distinct palette, the guitarist using muting objects, pedals, and picking motions that create a hive of sounds from scrabbled density to ghostly drabs hanging between nodes of a western scale. Smith is graceful and also knows how to manhandle the bass, interweaving additional bows, brushes, woody palm-swabs and plastic chain as well as making his presence known through a trusty, surefooted pizzicato walk. The array of string sounds on these pieces is dazzling and often dense, and it’s sometimes hard to believe this music comes from two people composing spontaneously. Morris puts it this way: “the inspiration is in life and the decades of trying to grow as an artist.

The music is made with skill and quick decision making in the moment, using the knowledge I have about improvising. That includes close listening and doing the best I can to decipher the other musicians’ contributions.” Now, the onus is on you, the listener, to enter the conversation and the experience. CLIFFORD ALLEN

1. Waves of Extension

2. Equalization Staggering

3. Momentum Redoubling

4. Double of Any

5. Multiple Presences

Joe Morris, Guitar

Damon Smith, Double Bass

Recorded by Joe Morris, June 10, 2019

Mixed and Mastered by Weasel Walter

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Nicolas Bourel Trio - Line Out (April 10, 2021)

1. Line Out

2. Iso

3. It's You?

4. Jaguar

5. Little House

6. Afrosphère

7. Trip 03:10

8. Parenthèse

9. April

10. Espérance

11. Moins Deux

Nicolas Bourel - Guitar

Martin Berauer - acoustic & electric Bass

Daniel Dray - Drums, Percussion

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Lilly (feat. Gilad Hekselman & Kirk Knuffke) - The Song is You (March 2021 Challenge Records)

Interpreting the standards from the Great American Songbook is considered by many to be the supreme discipline in jazz. Anyone who dares to sing songs like “My Foolish Heart” by Victor Young and Ned Washington, “It Might As Well Be Spring” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein or “Prelude to a Kiss” by Duke Ellington automatically exposes himself or herself to the comparison with hundreds of performers who have already sung them.

For the Danish jazz singer Lilly – full name Lilly-Ann Hertzman – they also are part of her musical DNA. “I love these songs; they speak to me,” she said with enthusiasm. “I have been listening to and singing jazz since I was a teenager, so I am very familiar with these songs. I mostly only sang my own songs on my first three albums. But it was completely natural for me to sing these other songs now.”

She already did this on her previous album “Tenderly”, in a duet with the Israeli-American guitarist Gilad Hekselman. The album received euphoric reactions. For Lilly, this was a reason to dare something similar without repeating herself. This time, Kirk Knuffke joined the tried-and-tested duet of singer and guitarist. The American cornet player brings an additional tone quality into play.

“The entire album was recorded in New York on one day; it was very spontaneous,” the singer stated with obvious pleasure. “Of course, I was very happy to be able to record with Gilad and Kirk.”

Three years ago, she had a joint performance with the trumpeter at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival and has kept him and his special tone in mind since then. Lilly also finds enthusiastic words for her other musical partner, who is so much more than just a companion, but instead a creator on equal terms.

“Gilad is a wonderful person and also one of the best musicians I have ever played with," she stated. “He makes everything so easy for me. He is very open-minded, but has both feet on the ground. “Let's see what happens” is his attitude, and I share it. He makes me sing better because I can relax with him.”

In addition to nine standards, Lilly's own song “Five Wild Geese” made it onto the album, about whose title and title track the singer was particularly concerned. It is not without reason at the end of the album. “I tried to find a common framework for the songs that made it onto the album,” Lilly said, “and then I decided on the album title 'The Song Is You’. It expresses the spirit of that day for me.”

The song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein is of course a love song. “To show your love to another person requires courage,” Lilly said. “That's my interpretation of the song.”

But she also finds other levels of interpretation of this song, which has been close to her heart for quite some time. “At the same time, you can also emphasize the ‘You’ from ‘The Song Is You’,” Lilly explained. “It's not about ego, but about following your heart and dreams. You also have to love yourself and be honest if you really want to love.”

And finally, the song expresses something a lot deeper for Lilly. “The title ‘The Song Is You’ is also about what musicians and singers do when they interpret a song,” the singer explained. “The moment you sing or play a song, you become that song. At least that's what I'm interested in. I want to interpret a story and make it my own. I completely blank out who else recorded this song.”

The sensitive and sometimes surprising interpretations that Lilly and her two companions have succeeded in creating here would easily withstand some comparison, but that wouldn’t be something that Lilly considers important. For her, something completely different is in the foreground. “We were very relaxed in the studio and had fun,” she said with pleasure, “and that's what it's all about. Be yourself!”

1. If You Could See Me Now 03:23

2. Up Jumped Spring 06:15

3. My Foolish Heart 04:31

4. Five Wild Geese 04:14

5. Prelude to a Kiss 04:56

6. It Might As Well Be Spring 04:39

7. Scarborough Fair 07:44

8. Lonely Woman 04:20

9. That Old Feeling 04:22

10. The Song is You 04:44

Lilly - vocal

Gilad Hekselman - guitars, percussion (4) & bodypercussion (2 & 4)

Kirk Knuffke - cornet

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Kohsuke Mine - First (April 30, 2021 BBE Music)

PRE-ORDER ITEM : The 2LP & CD will be available on April 30, 2021. If you wish to secure yourself a copy, order now to avoid disappointment. Please note any orders containing pre-order items won’t be shipped until all items are available, so please order this separately to avoid delays.

BBE Music present the latest in the acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Kohsuke Mine ‘First’, the debut album by one of the leading artists in the new wave of modern jazz that swept Japan in the late 60s and early 70s. ‘First’ epitomises the shifting sound of the Japanese modern jazz scene of the time, characterised by rich textures and tones, kinetic rhythms, punctuated by urgent, angular melody lines.

Reissued for the first time since original 1970 release, Mine is joined by master keyboard player Masabumi Kikuchi on electric piano, and two American players – bassist Larry Ridley and drummer Lenny McBrowne – to deliver one of the strongest debuts in the J Jazz canon. ‘First’ announced the arrival of a serious talent, one who was to be a hugely influential figure in the Japanese jazz scene across the decade that followed and beyond. ‘First’ established an artist who built a reputation for standout albums spanning spiritual jazz, post-bop, modal and funk-fusion. All of that started here, on this exemplary album.

‘First’ is issued on CD, digital and vinyl. The vinyl edition is presented as a double album, cut at 45rpm by the Grammy-nominated Carvery, with full original reproduction artwork, including obi strip. Both CD and vinyl comes with a 4500 word sleeve note and interview with Kohsuke Mine by Tony Higgins, plus artist portraits by Shigeru Uchiyama.

J Jazz Masterclass Series is curated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

1. Morning Tide

2. Love Talken

3. Straight No Chaser

4. McPhee

5. Little Abbi

6. Bar 'L' Len

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Rodrigo Pinheiro & Pedro Carneiro - Kinetic Études (April 2, 2021 Phonogram Unit)

1. Étude 1: on shadows and resonances

2. Étude 2: on velocity and acceleration

3. Étude 3: on energy and rotation

4. Étude 4: on impact and orbit

5. Étude 5: on resistance and mass

6. Étude 6: on inertia and collision

Rodrigo Pinheiro, piano

Pedro Carneiro, marimba with quarter tone extension

Recorded by Pedro Carneiro at Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (OCP), Algés, Portugal on January 30, 2021

Mixed by Rodrigo Pinheiro and Pedro Carneiro

Mastered by Rodrigo Pinheiro

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John Coltrane Quartet - Newport, New York, Alabama, 1963 (Revisited) 2021 Hat Hut Records

Albert Ayler Quintet 1966: Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm (Revisited) 2021 Hat Hut Records

Silvan Schmid - Augmented Space (2021 Hat Hut Records)

Matt Panayides - Field Theory (April 9, Pacific Coast Jazz)

COMING OUT APRIL 9th, 2021! This album features the music this group has been playing together since 2018. With compositions by the band leader and guitarist Matt Panayides, the group features Matt Vashlishan on Wind Synth, Rich Perry on Tenor Sax, Robert Sabin on bass, and Mark Ferber on drums. The album will come out this Spring

Contemporary jazz composer/guitarist Matt Panayides explores new sonic landscapes on Field Theory.

On FIELD THEORY, guitarist and composer MATT PANAYIDES explores new sonic landscapes by mixing electric and acoustic sounds in a set of modern, highly original post-bop compositions.

FIELD THEORY is a departure from Panayides' previous releases, Conduits (2016) and Tapestries of Song (2011), which were both acoustic, modern jazz projects. The music on FIELD THEORY is complex and modern yet exciting and accessible. The contrast between the electric guitar and EWI with the upright bass and tenor sax creates rich textures.

Although Panayides' approach to composition is influenced by the harmonic language of modern jazz composers like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, he set out on his own path, writing tightly structured arrangements with dissonant harmonizations containing ample space for improvisation. Panayides says, ''For me, the ideas for compositions come as if from another place. They will appear at any time, sometimes while practicing or on a gig. But the ideas can also come in a dream, or while driving, or standing in line. The trick is to capture these little musical nuggets as best I can so I can organize them later. This entire album was conceived in this way.

''FIELD THEORY'' is a contemporary jazz album that does not completely abandon traditional forms. Panayides invites the listener in with music that is at once familiar, yet largely unexpected, with pops of contrasting colors that weave together images of sound that tell stories not unlike a great abstract painting.

1 Kite Flying

2 Disturbance

3 Closer Now

4 Field Theory

5 Looking Round Corners

6 Energy Mover

7 2.27.20

8 Penta Folk I Arrive

9 Penta Folk II Coalesce

10 Penta Folk III Ascend

11 Penta Folk IV Depart

12 Self Narrative

Matt Panayides on guitar 

Matt Vashlishan on Wind Synth

Rich Perry on Tenor Sax

Robert Sabin on bass

Mark Ferber on drums

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Dino Piana - Al gir dal Bughi (2021 Parco della Musica Records)

Il nuovo disco della Parco della Musica Records  è un doveroso e affettuoso omaggio al trombonista Dino Piana, definito da Enrico Rava, che ha fortemente voluto il progetto insieme al figlio Franco, “uno dei più grandi jazzisti italiani, uno dei più amati e dei più richiesti in Europa, uno dei padri storici del jazz moderno in Italia e fonte d’ispirazione per tutti i giovani trombonisti negli anni a venire”. Il titolo “Al gir dal bughi” (al giro del Boogie) nasce dal racconto del loro primo incontro durante una jam session avvenuta più di sessant’anni fa, in cui cominciarono suonare e Piana fece il primo assolo rivelandosi “qualcosa di straordinario, con una fluidità e una logica che ci lasciarono basiti. Un altro pianeta”. Da quel momento è nata una amicizia che arriva fino a oggi e che trapela anche in questo disco, prodotto dalla Parco della Musica Records e Jando Music, in cui vengono interpretati alcuni standard immortali del jazz da Bernie’s Tune a Polka Dotz and Moonbeams e Everything Happens to Me. Dino Piana, Enrico Rava e Franco Piana sono accompagnati da una sezione ritmica d’eccezione capitanata da Roberto Gatto alla batteria con Gabriele Evangelisti al contrabbasso e Julian Oliver Mazzariello al pianoforte.

1. When Lights are Low

2. Bernie's Tune

3. Polka Dotz and Moonbeams

4. Rhythm a Ning

5. I'll Close My Eyes

6. When Will the Blues Leave

7. Everything Happens to Me

8. Dear Old Stockholm

9. Line for Lions

Dino Piana valve trombone

Enrico Rava flugelhorn

Franco Piana flugelhorn

Julian Oliver Mazzariello piano

Gabriele Evangelista double bass

Roberto Gatto drums

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Satoko Fujii - Step On Thin Ice (2021 March Libra Records)

1. Step On Thin Ice 09:02

2. Winter Sunshine 02:17

3. Mirror Surface 08:56

4. Chasing 04:04

5. Arpchords 04:32

6. Kazaoto 06:04

7. Sakimawari 05:44

8. Walking Wagtail 02:51

9. Spring Is Right There 04:34

Improvised and recorded by Satoko Fujii at her piano room

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Jason Branscum - Beyond the Walls of the World (May 28, 2021)

This is an album of alien fairy tales. It was recorded neither for Martians nor children, but for those held captive by the darkest enchantments of modernity; namely you and me. I crafted this music to draw us out of the mundane world in which we now live, into fantasies in lands both real and imagined, finally arriving at the magical land in which we now live. We shall begin our fantasy not in cottage or castle, but in our own abode of disillusionment, escaping to places Tolkien described as filled with, “both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.”

1. When the Sky Is Big

2. Urban Nature Walk

3. Sycamore

4. I and the Village

5. Obsidian Lies

6. The Ninth Baktun 09:44

7. Magnolia

8. Lelands

9. Lucy with Levi and Catherine

10. Ginko

11. Six Demon Bag

12. Oak

13. The Ground or the Hearth

14. The Missing Coil

15. Maple

16. Nooks and Crannies

17. When the Sky Is Big

Musicians:

Jason Branscum - trombone

Brandon Coleman - guitar

Aaron Jacobs - bass guitar

Tom Buckley - drums

Except:

When the Sky Is Big:

Jason Branscum - trombone

Marc Fields - trombone

Justin Dawson - acoustic bass

Dan Dorff - drums

Trees:

Jason Branscum - trombone

Josh Kline - saxophone

Justin Dawson - acoustic bass

Tom Buckley - drums

Dan Dorff - drums

Strings:

Kanako Shimasaki - violin

Mariko Shimasaki - violin

Martin Hintz - viola (tracks 6 and 9)

Shelby Thompson - viola (tracks 4, 13, 11, and. 16)

Phillip Goist - cello

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Brandon Coleman at the Golden Mean in Cincinnati, OH

All compositions by Jason Branscum

All soundscapes conceptualized, performed, and produced by Jason Branscum and Brandon Coleman

Strings arrangements by Brandon Coleman (tracks 4, 6, 9, and 13) and Jason Branscum (tracks 11 and 16)

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Jerry Kalaf - Leaning To The Left (March 2021)

1. Let Me Out 02:58

2. The Namesake 03:22

3. Messengers 05:27

4. Sal 04:46

5. Common Ground 05:28

6. Ariel 05:10

Composed by Jerry Kalaf

Drums and Percussion - Jerry Kalaf, Scott Breadman

String Orchestra - Rick Marvin

Piano and Synth - Rick Marvin, Rich Eames, Louis Durra

EVI - Judd Miller

Electric Guitar - Barry Coates

Acoustic Guitar - Gary Solt

Bass - Carl Sealove, Domenic Genova, Ken Wild

Tenor Saxophone - Rob Lockart, Doug Walter

Euphoniums - Ken Kugler

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Satoko Fujii / Tokyo Trio – Moon On The Lake (May 7, 2021 Libra Records)

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii Debuts Tokyo Trio, Her First Standard Piano Trio

Since 2013, on Her Latest CD, Moon on the Lake

“The music rattles the bones as often as it soothes the soul and no composer is more masterful at balancing and

grounding those extremes…continually absorbing and unlike anything else.” – Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

Moon on the Lake to be released May 7, 2021 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii brings together a new piano trio on her latest release Moon on the Lake captured live at Tokyo’s famous jazz venue, Pit Inn. The Tokyo Trio features Fujii with two of the most indemand younger musicians on the Japanese jazz scene, bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura. They form a lithe, quick witted trio, capable of terrific speed and excitement as well as subtle textures and tone colors. Moon on the Lake puts their wide range and capabilities on full display.

Although this new group is a classic jazz piano trio, Fujii isn’t primarily concerned with echoing the jazz tradition. “I of course love jazz piano trio; Bill Evans is my favorite,” she says. “But I don’t try to have an inheritance of tradition in my music. I know it comes out, anyway. I want to hear individual voices in my music.”

Instead she focuses on the personalities of the musicians she works with, independently of the instrument they play, and how well they might work together. Her connection to Takemura goes back to 2017, when he became a member of the Japanese edition of the collective quartet Kira Kira, along with Australian keyboardist Alister Spence and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. They released Bright Force (Libra Records) as one of twelve CDs celebrating Fujii’s 60th birthday year in 2018. “I was so fascinated by his playing,” Fujii says. “He has super technique, but more importantly he knows how to use his technique musically. He plays straight ahead jazz in many groups, including with Sadao Watanabe, but he loves free improvisation and he’s courageous enough to try new things.”

“I played with Takashi several years ago with Natsuki,” she continues. “He also plays straight ahead but he’s very open and loves free improvisation. When he toured Japan with his trio, which included Tom Rainey on drums, I went to see them and was impressed by the sincerity of his playing.”

The breadth of their experience is something that appealed to Fujii. “They both are very young—Ittetsu is 30 and Takashi is 39. Most of my generation of Japanese jazz musicians are either very conservative or free, sometimes they were like enemies and only a few of them are open to what the others are doing. I like that Ittetsu and Takashi can combine the disciplines and can have fun playing both. They play together in many other groups as well. I can easily imagine that they would sound great together in other settings.”

Since both bassist and drummer are so busy, the opportunities for them to play as a trio with Fujii have been limited. They debuted at Tokyo’s legendary jazz club, Pit Inn, in August 2019. Another gig followed in December at the jazz club Classics, also in Tokyo. Their third date, on September 15, 2020, again at Pit Inn, was recorded for this album. Fujii had to cancel a planned tour in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It's clear that even with limited playing time together, they have established a close rapport and a distinctive group sound. “Hansho” (which means “alarm bell”) is a playful, sprinting tune that showcases both the trio’s rapid conversational interplay and the individual talents of each member. Takashi’s unaccompanied melodic inventions are undergirded by the rhythm of the composition, but even his departures from the tune feel organically connected to it. Ittetsu highlights both his smooth speed and attention to sound, from the tight ping of his snares to his crisp cymbal work. Fujii is in a buoyant mood and her joyful, cascading runs and knotty little phrases are strung into a grand dramatic arc. “Keep Running” is a similarly jubilant excursion, which finds Ittetsu orchestrating high energy figures all over his kit. The tune alternates between full-steam-ahead sections and splintered, disjointed parts that interrupt the forward momentum but never stop it.

Elsewhere the tempos slow and interactions are more subtle but no less astute. “Wait for the Moon to Rise” is a superbly paced tone poem featuring a poignant melody and contrasting textures and colors that unify into a tightly constructed nocturnal revery. The title track is a surprisingly Romantic sounding composition during which Ittetsu’s bowed cymbals interject abstract sounds and arco bass makes eerie loon calls to evoke the imagery of the title. Fujii also revisits “Aspiration,” the title track of her 2017 album with Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, and Ikue Mori. Her opening solo is a brilliant example of how she moves from one idea to another to string together phrases into coherent statements. Takamura’s bass solo has a vocal lyricism that makes it feel like a song. Once again Ittetsu shows what a musical concept of the drums he has, moving from one idea to the next and developing each one completely. The joint construction of tone colors, rhythms, and textures is a tribute to their imaginations and rapport.

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Satoko Fujii duo with Natsuki Tamura – Keshin (April 9, 2021 Libra Records)

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and Trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura Record

at Home Together for New Duo Album

“The wife-husband team from Japan . . . consistently reveals a wide-open and unpredictable nature that makes

its performance a thrilling ride for the listener.” – Steve Feeney, Portland Press Herald

“Intuition and communication like that is rare.” – Adam Kinner, The Montreal Gazette

Keshin to be released April 9, 2021 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii says, “If I don’t make music, I just don’t feel right, I lose my sense of self.” It’s not surprising, then, that Keshin, an album of duets with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, is the third album she’s recorded at home and released since the global COVID-19 pandemic made touring impossible a little more than a year ago. Undaunted by conditions that have eliminated performing before live audiences, she keeps making great music, whether it’s creating new projects or revitalizing familiar settings such as her longstanding duo with Tamura. This is their eighth recording together, yet they sound as inspired now as they did in 1997 when they made their first duo CD.

The pandemic has had a few surprising benefits for Fujii. “I actually have more time to compose, practice, and think about music because I cannot go on tour. I can’t even visit my parents!” she says. “Before this pandemic, we might only stay at our place for just a week out of the month. Now we stay home all the time.”

Playing and recording at home took some getting used to, however. “Last year, Natsuki and I did some live-streaming concerts on Facebook,” Fujii says. “At first it was very strange and uncomfortable to play music without an audience. Eventually we found it makes us concentrate more and play deeper within ourselves. Of course the reaction of the audience can affect us as we play, but sometimes we care too much how they react and loose our true voices. If we play our deepest selves, then we also can reach audience deeply. I have discovered so many things that I might never have noticed if this pandemic didn’t happen.”

Perhaps that’s why Keshin sounds so fresh. The experience of playing in isolation at home has paradoxically made the music more outgoing, bursting with new ideas, good spirits, and closeness between Fujii and Tamura. The exuberant “Busy Day” starts things off with a bantering exchange of phrases between trumpet and piano, then segues into a long melody performed in unison. Whether playing together or separately, they seem intent on delighting and amusing one another. “Sparrow Dance” is similarly playful, a contrapuntal weave of hopping, zig-zagging lines that call to mind the nervous, perpetually in motion activity of birds. “Dreamer” and “Drop” find the pair perfectly in sync, making balanced performances with the effortless give and take between them, a convivial blend of familiar and new. The episodic “Three Scenes” is highlighted by Tamura’s aria of squeaks and growls and a contrasting piano solo of exquisite longing and lyricism. The title track is one of Fujii’s ravishing melancholic inventions, advanced in form but accessible in feeling, highlighted by her pointillistic unaccompanied opening.

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 90 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock, and folk musics into an innovative style instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific band leader and recording artist, she celebrated her 60th birthday in 2018 by releasing one album a month from bands old and new, from solo to large ensemble. Franz A. Matzner in All About Jazz likened the twelve albums to “an ecosystem of independently thriving organisms linked by the shared soil of Fujii's artistic heritage and shaped by the forces of her creativity.”

Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black and an electrifying avantrock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their seventh recording, Pentas, in 2020. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz. Aspiration, a CD by an ad hoc quartet featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Tamura, and Ikue Mori, was released in 2017 to wide acclaim. “Four musicians who regularly aspire for greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration,” writes S. Victor Aaron in Something Else. As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan (two of which, Berlin and Tokyo, released new CDs in 2018), Fujii has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”

Trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for his unique musical vocabulary blending extended techniques with jazz lyricism. This unpredictable virtuoso “has some of the stark, melancholy lyricism of Miles, the bristling rage of late ’60s Freddie Hubbard and a dollop of the extended techniques of Wadada Leo Smith and Lester Bowie,” observes Mark Keresman of JazzReview.com. Throughout his career, Tamura has led bands with radically different approaches. On one hand, there are avant rock jazz fusion bands like his quartet, whose album Hada Hada Peter Marsh of the BBC described this way: “Imagine Don Cherry woke up one morning, found he'd joined an avant goth-rock band and was booked to score an Italian horror movie.” In contrast, Tamura has focused on the intersection of folk music and sound abstraction with Gato Libre since 2003.

The band’s poetic, quietly surreal performances have been praised for their “surprisingly soft and lyrical beauty that at times borders on flat-out impressionism,” by Rick Anderson in CD Hotlist. Tamura also collaborates on many of Fujii’s projects, from quartets and trios to big bands. As an unaccompanied soloist, he’s released three CDs, including Dragon Nat (2014). He and Fujii are also members of Kaze, a collaborative quartet with French musicians, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins. “As unconventional as he may be,” notes Marc Chenard in Coda magazine, “Natsuki Tamura is unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today.”

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