Jazz Articles about Natsuki Tamura

About Natsuki Tamura

Album Review

The fifth album by Gato Libre, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's acoustic quartet, is the first since the sudden death of bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu in 2011. Having thought long and hard about whether to continue, Tamura recruited trombonist Yasuko Kaneko as a replacement. While the European folk music inspiration of previous outings like Shiro (Libra Records, 2009) and Forever (Libra Records, 2012) remains intact, the change has engendered more the feel of a chamber outfit, albeit one at times crossed with a ...

Album Review

Gato Libre: DuDu

by Dan McClenaghan
June 8, 2014

There are a lot of high energy, wild and out there sounds screaming around in Natsuki Tamura's discography--the explosively electric Hada Hada (Libra Records, 2002), the sizzling Exit (Libra Records, 2004), and any number of unfettered collaborations with his wife, pianist Satoko Fujii. But his Gato Libre discs are one of the Japanese trumpeter's more laid-back methods of expression. An acoustic quartet that explores European folk themes in a tranquil and occasionally off-center way, the five previous sets by the ...

Extended Analysis

Natsuki Tamura: Dragon Nat

by Dave Wayne
April 23, 2014

The instrumentalist begins his career as, essentially, a solo artist. Whether is practicing long tones or scales or drum rudiments, nearly everyone who plays a musical instrument starts out unaccompanied. On the road to mastery, most musicians spend thousands of hours playing alone. In jazz, solo recordings by musicians other than pianists or guitarists are a relatively recent phenomenon, and the prospect of listening to a horn or drum soloist playing unaccompanied for an hour or more may seem daunting, ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura and Satoko Fujii: Muku

by Dave Wayne
December 12, 2012

It's surprising that trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii--partners in music and life--have only recorded five duet CDs during the course of their incredibly prolific and artistically fecund collaboration. As Fujii wryly explains in her liner notes, each of their duet recordings is different--some are entirely freely improvised, others consist solely of compositions written by either Fujii or Tamura. The location--an important metric in the Fujii/Tamura universe--of each duet recording has also been different. Recorded in New York City, ...

Album Review

Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii: Muku

by Dan McClenaghan
August 12, 2012

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii--partners in marriage and music--have an extensive discography together, spanning a broad array of ensemble configurations, from Fujii's calamitous big bands to Tamura's European folk song-flavored Gato Libre discs, and from Fujii's propulsive, window-rattling art rock quartets to Tamura's blistering electric quartet of Hada Hada (Libra Records, 2003). But it is in their simple duo of piano and trumpet, where they have recently created some of their most compelling music.Muko is the ...

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Album Review

First Meeting: Cut the Rope

Read "Cut the Rope" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 27, 2010

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura creates a vast expanse of sound on Cut the Rope, the first album recorded with his band First Meeting. Nothing is predictable on this wholly improvised album that ranges from aspects of a vision of being marooned on a desolate soundscape to the musicians ultimately finding their way into a melodic river of sound, after at first coming perilously close to losing all sense of direction. But Tamura is an expert guide: he wields his horn like ...

Album Review

Gato Libre: Shiro

Read "Shiro" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
July 1, 2010

Il Gato Libre del trombettista Natsuki Tamura giunge al quarto capitolo confermando i caratteri di un'estetica transculturale che s'ispira alle musiche popolari europee per creare una sintesi dalle tinte radiose, giocata principalmente sulle suggestioni timbriche e la cantabilità melodica. Il primo nucleo del progetto era un duo costituito da Tamura e dal bassista Norikatsu Koreyasu. Dopo pochi concerti la formazione s'è ampliata al chitarrista acustico Kazuhiko Tsumura ed ha trovato la sua forma definitiva con l'ingresso di Satoko Fujii alla ...