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Jazz Articles about Natsuki Tamura
Satoko Fujii: Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams
by Dan McClenaghan
Country music artist Merle Haggard (1937 -2016) released 66 studio albums in his day, along with five instrumental recordings and several live and compilation discs. When asked in a late-career interview if his upcoming album was a good one, he answered (paraphrasing). “I don't know. I've made so many I don't know if the next one's any good or not." He was probably pulling the interviewer's leg. It is hard to imagine an artist presenting a new work ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura and Gato Libre: Sleeping Cat
by Karl Ackermann
Following the example of his partner and spouse, Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura has embarked on a year-long project of multiple, timed releases. Like his companion, Tamura has found that his trumpet is at home in numerous musical settings. One of his most popular ventures is the group Gato Libre which features Fujii on accordion rather than her customary piano; trombonist Yasuko Kaneko, a group member since 2014's DuDu (Libra), rounds out the trio. Since the inception of the group, Gato ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura: Pentas: Tribute to Eric and Chris Stern
by Neri Pollastri
Coppia nella vita e nell'attività artistica, Satoko Fujii e Natsuki Tamura presentano con questo Pentas il loro settimo disco (il primo, How Many, risale al 1997). Registrato a Cracovia, esce per la polacca Not Two, che della Fujii ha pubblicato numerosi lavori. La dedica del sottotitolo è a una coppia di appassionati conosciuti a Cracovia, al concerto che seguì la registrazione, il marito della quale, malato, morì proprio la notte successiva. L'album si articola su otto brani, quasi ...
Continue ReadingNatuski Tamura: Summer Tree
by Karl Ackermann
Natsuki Tamura explodes the conventions of the trumpet. The ironically titled Summer Tree is his fifth solo album though his partner, and here, producer, Satoko Fujii, lends a vocal contribution on one of four extended compositions. Tamura's previous pandemic project, Koki Solo (Libra Records, 2021) was lockdown escapism with an ear toward humor and an eye toward the more resonant utensils in his kitchen. Summer Tree is dark and complex but Tamura's most accessible solo album. Two fully improvised pieces ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura: Summer Tree
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2002, the Natsuki Tamura Quartet released an album called Hada Hada (Libra Records). It sounded as if it was plugged into ten thousand volts, even Tamura's trumpet, and especially Satoko Fujii's synthesizer, in the making of a soundtrack to a “Cyborgs March on the Capitol" movie. And those cyborgs were mad. Odd stuff. In 2022, Tamura goes it solo on Summer Tree, crafting another soundtrack, Covid style, in isolation, in a small recording studio in his apartment in Kobe, ...
Continue ReadingThis Is It!: Mosaic
by John Sharpe
Fittingly for an artist as relentlessly exploratory as pianist Satoko Fujii, on Mosaic she pushes at the boundaries of recording technology, as well as the music, and comes up trumps. For the second release from the trio This Is It! lack of physical proximity proved no obstacle. Confined to base during the pandemic, Fujii and husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura coordinated their parts in her tiny practice room, while drummer Takashi Itani collaborated from his apartment bedroom 264 miles away in ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Mosaic
by Dan McClenaghan
Another Covid-19 pandemic year, 2021, seems to have brought about a revival of Japanese pianist Satoko Fuji's duo work, with her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura on Keishin, and with vibraphonist Taiko Saito--a pairing dubbed “Futari"--on Underground and Beyond. All three discs are on Libra Records. As the year winds down, she teams once again with Tamura, and brings another artist, Takashi Itani, into their duo orbit, to form a piano trio of sorts, in a group they call “This Is ...
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