Jazz Articles about Gato Libre

Gato Libre: Nomad

by Jim Santella
January 29, 2007

Natsuki Tamura's lyrical and subdued Gato Libre group wanders like a nomad through various parts of the world, capturing the essence of folk music and interpreting it through a jazz frame of reference. It's beautiful, acoustic music, and it's evidence of the trumpeter's creative power.

This is impressionism at its best. We can follow the quartet as it delivers a folk dance that rehearses its steps slowly, builds to a rapid and sweaty pace that almost reaches havoc ...

Gato Libre: Nomad

by Jerry D'Souza
January 22, 2007

Natsuki Tamura and Satoko Fujii are two of the most daring improvisers in jazz. Their music blasts through unfettered, a brimful of heated animation. But daring can take other courses, and so it is with Gato Libre, Tamura's quartet, which does strange things considering the pedigree that he and Fujii have. They get into folk music, a move that saw its first resolution on the group's Strange Village (Muzak, 2005).

Tamura wrote this music based on the folk idioms of ...

Gato Libre: Nomad

by Dan McClenaghan
January 10, 2007

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's trip into European folk sounds is one of the stranger, off-on-a-tangent jazz journeys around. His new Gato Libre group, with one previous CD, Strange Village (Muzak, 2005), to its credit, is an accoustic quartet with his wife and musical collaborator Satoko Fujii (accordion), Kazuhiko Tsumura (guitar) and Norikatsu Koreyasu (bass). Nomad carries on in the same vein as its predessor--dreamy and mysterious, gentle and straightforward, but with more assurance and a finer focus, featuring some of Tamura's ...

Gato Libre: Strange Village

by Jim Santella
December 1, 2005

Capturing the essence of folk music, Natsuki Tamura creates an acoustic session on Strange Village that lets him tell the stories vividly and completely. Through open trumpet, guitar, bass, and accordion, he communicates tales that stir the imagination and let the listener interpret accordingly. Each tale comes with rounded textures that belie humble surroundings where people know that they can feel at home. Slowly and deliberately, the music walks you through the streets and welcomes you with open arms.

Gato Libre: Strange Village

by Dan McClenaghan
November 25, 2005

On a blindfold test, with Gato Libre's Strange Village drifting from the speakers, not in a thousand guesses would I have identified the players. The sound is introspective and tranquil, with European folk music shadings--accordion, bass, and acoustic guitar floating behind a relaxed, round-toned trumpet. It's about as far from trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's sizzling electro-stew on Exit (NatSat Music, '04) as you'll find, but this is indeed him, joined on a gentle accoustic set by his wife and frequent musical ...