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Gato Libre: Neko
by Karl Ackermann
Any new release from Gato Libre is a welcome event and sure to be a transcendent musical journey of simple sophistication in an unconventional structure. Neko is all those things but with the added, palpable emotion driven by a sense of loss that the group has endured yet again. Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and life partner, pianist, and accordionist Satoko Fujii have been the mainstays of the groups since its 2005 debut, Strange Village (Muzak Inc). The original quartet included bassist ...
read moreGato Libre: DuDu
by Alberto Bazzurro
Fondandosi su un assortimento strumentale senz'altro inconsueto e su composizioni tutte a firma del trombettista e leader Natsuki Tamura, il quartetto protagonista di questo lavoro, inciso a Berlino nel giugno 2013, ci regala un prodotto certamente originale, che ha se vogliamo il solo limite di offrirci il meglio in apertura e chiusura, non rivelandosi nella parte centrale sufficientemente articolato nello sviluppare appieno tutto quanto messo felicemente sul piatto in avvio. Elegante ma ricco di corpo, screziato e ...
read moreFrames - Pericopes
by Alberto Bazzurro
Alessandro Sgobbio & Emiliano Vernizzi Pericopes Frames ParmaFrontiere * * * Otto brani (live al Teatro Sociale di Gualtieri, patria di Antonio Ligabue, il 12 settembre 2013) più tre tracce extra (la terza, per la verità, è semplicemente un pezzo extrascaletta dallo stesso concerto), una durata totale di ottantatre minuti, una musica educata, calibrata, controllatissima, frutto del dialogare fra il pianoforte di Alessandro Sgobbio e i sassofoni (tenore e soprano) di Emiliano Vernizzi: questo, in ...
read moreGato Libre: Forever
by Dave Wayne
Gato Libre is the most unexpected manifestation of the multifaceted collaboration between trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii. This understated quartet of bass, acoustic guitar, trumpet and accordion creates a sound world that is totally unique: serene, atmospheric, and seemingly contrary to the duo's other collaborative musical ventures. Gato Libre's music isn't a fusion or cross-cultural adventure, though it seems to have started out that way. Instead, Tamura, Fujii and their colleagues have devised a music that exists sui ...
read moreGato Libre: Forever
by Hrayr Attarian
Innovative trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is a creative artist with a wide repertoire that draws as much from modern improvised music as it does jazz and world folk heritages. Often a key collaborator in wife/pianist Satoko Fujii' inimitable ensembles, he emerges as a leader of the unique quartet Gato Libre on its fifth release, Forever. Tamura's compositions have a strong Spanish flavor and brim with subtle yet robust creative spontaneity. On “Moor," the longing sound of Tamura's light ...
read moreGato Libre: Forever
by Dan McClenaghan
The team of pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura produces a lot of music. More often than not, it's Fujii in the leader's chair, in one of her numerous big bands, quartets, trios or in duo outings with Tamura. By normal standards--that is, not in comparison with Fujii--Tamura's output as a leader could be considered rather busy. Though he claims to be lazy in the liner notes of his group Gato Libre's Shiro (Libra Records, 2009), since 2005 he ...
read moreGato Libre: Shiro
by Raul d'Gama Rose
The elemental sadness of Natsuki Tamura's trumpet, as it ascends the temperate scale he has created in “Dune and Star," defines the desolate beauty of Shiro, the fourth album from duo-turned-quartet, Gato Libre. Tamura also evokes the soft colors and textures of dawn, dusk, and the time in between, as if it has been caught in a frieze. His horn--and the manner in which he paces himself on it--recalls Miles Davis' memorable collaborations with Gil Evans. Davis eventually turned his ...
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