Jazz Articles about Tomas Fujiwara

About Tomas Fujiwara

Album Review

Ben Goldberg: Everything Happens To Be.

Read "Everything Happens To Be." reviewed by John Chacona

by John Chacona
June 18, 2021

The music of Ben Goldberg seems to come from a place outside of time--or maybe it comes from several times simultaneously. Maybe it's the instruments he chooses; while the clarinet family has been on the comeback trail in jazz for a quarter century, it's a sound that invariably invokes the New Orleans of a century ago. That's especially true when Goldberg picks up the mellow, woody, Albert-system E-flat instrument on “Cold Weather." That tune's sweet melancholy wobbles perilously close to ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 23, 2020

Guitarist Mary Halvorson has displayed her playing and composing talents in a number of settings, but this second release by her song-based band, Code Girl, is one of the most focused and intense things she has ever done. Halvorson and her quintet constructed music around eight of her own poems, each written in a specific poetic form. The results are fluid and improvisational art songs, in the manner of complex but catchy British art rock groups of the ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
November 26, 2020

Not content with having scaled the heights of the guitar pantheon, with the second release from Code Girl, Mary Halvorson also cements her place in a unique genre of her own design. As befits someone who has taken to heart Anthony Braxton's dictum to find her own musical voice, she presents something which is part art song, part indie rock, part mainstream jazz and part free form, but all Halvorson. Mirroring the progression of her trio, first to ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
November 7, 2020

Released by Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, Artlessly Falling presents eight new compositions, each of which is structured around a specific poetic form with accompanying lyrics/poems by Halvorson herself. The forms represent a significant diversity of cultural origins and eras, including Japanese Tanka, 12th century Sestina, French Villanelle, and Malay Pantoum. With each of the above sources arguably requiring deep study to become well-versed in, this central conceit might feel like a daring experiment, hubris, or a bit of ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
October 26, 2020

Esistono due donne nel mondo del jazz moderno che hanno mostrato di conoscere e capire in toto il genio musicale di Robert Wyatt. La prima, molto tempo fa e quindi in tempi non sospetti, è stata Carla Bley e non c'è altro da aggiungere. La seconda, che è invece colei di cui vogliamo scrivere, è Mary Halvorson, chitarrista newyorkese di Brooklyn, da almeno una dozzina di anni indicata dalla critica più attenta e intelligente quale una delle più intriganti personalità ...

Album Review

Mary Halvorson's Code Girl: Artlessly Falling

Read "Artlessly Falling" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
October 25, 2020

Aside from her most obvious musical talents, including her phenomenal guitar chops and her budding talent as a lyricist, Mary Halvorson has a special gift for understanding the abilities of her bandmates and drawing out their strengths to the fullest. Part of it is the way she tends to keep the same company in her assorted projects: bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are the leading examples, having recorded extensively with her in their trio Thumbscrew, as heard on ...

Album Review

Thumbscrew: The Anthony Braxton Project

Read "The Anthony Braxton Project" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
August 23, 2020

The Thumbscrew trio celebrates avant-garde legend Anthony Braxton's 75th birthday with this project. Given access to the Tricentric Archives of Braxton's work, they focused on previously unrecorded pieces by the composer, multi-wind master and bandleader. In addition to their playing history together guitarist Mary Halvorson, double bassist Michael Formanek and drummer/vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara have all had extensive experience working with Braxton, making them ideally suited to these interpretations of his music. Seeking scores that fired their imaginations (as ...