Home » Jazz Articles » Natsuki Tamura
Jazz Articles about Natsuki Tamura
This 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 ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity
by Neri Pollastri
Undicesimo album per l'Orchestra New York di Satoko Fujii, qui composta di tredici elementi, dei quali ben nove già presenti nel primo lavoro, South Wind, risalente al lontano 1997. Il disco è registrato nel maggio del 2019 ed è uscito già lo scorso anno, ma merita egualmente grande attenzione, in quanto si tratta di un lavoro di primissimo livello. Né poteva essere diversamente, considerando non solo la qualità media, altissima, delle produzioni della musicista giapponese, ma anche l'organico straordinario della ...
Continue ReadingIkue Mori, Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura: Prickly Pear Cactus
by Neri Pollastri
Questo disco è un esempio dei molti lavori prodotti nel periodo della pandemia, pensati e realizzati a distanza, registrando le parti ciascuno nella propria casa e poi “montandole" con l'uso di software e computer. I tre protagonisti erano appena rientrati in Giappone da un tour statunitense e da una registrazione a New York con il gruppo Kaze, quando l'esplosione del Covid-19 li costrinse ad annullare tutti i concerti in programma e a rinchiudersi nelle loro case. Una cosa ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura: Koki Solo
by Karl Ackermann
Birthday celebrations have found their way into jazz recordings since the Louis Armstrong era. Illinois Jacquet, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, and Jaco Pastorius have directly baked the cake into album titles while other artists have taken an indirect approach to celebrating. Satoko Fujii broke the mold in 2019 with a new release each month in commemoration of her sixtieth birthday. Now her partner and frequent collaborator, Natsuki Tamura takes a page from Fujii's book with his solo recording Koki Solo. ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura: Koki Solo
by Dan McClenaghan
In 1983, pop vocalist Cyndi Lauper said, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun." She probably still sings it. Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura has always wanted to have fun, too, playing--in his early days--jazz standards in Japanese clubs where hostesses in negligees sat at stage-side tables drinking room temperature tea masquerading as whiskey at the expense of ardent customers. From there, Tamura's artistry evolved to making trumpet noises that sound like a love sick duck, or a flatulent hedgehog (and so much ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii: Keshin
by Dan McClenaghan
The Covid-19 virus tightened its grip on the world in 2020, bringing the old “one door closes, another one opens" trope to mind. The door into touring, to presenting music in live venues, slammed shut. But the extra time afforded by the lack of live music opportunities let the recording studio doors swing wide open--especially in a time when the technology has made home studios a viable and relatively affordable option. Pianist Satoko Fujii's studio is located in ...
Continue Reading
