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Tomas Fujiwara: The More the Better
by Troy Dostert
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara is a man on a mission. With recent and upcoming projects too many to list, he's one of the most widely recorded and in-demand drummers in contemporary creative jazz. Somehow he found the time to talk with All About Jazz right after a sound check in preparation for his Triple Double sextet's headlining performance on October 21 at Ann Arbor, Michigan's Edgefest festival. Fujiwara spoke about the music on Triple Double (out October 20 on Firehouse 12 ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara: Triple Double
by Glenn Astarita
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara is all over the progressive jazz map the past several years as a member of Thumbscrew with guitarist Mary Halvorson and bassist Michael Formanek amid support duties for poll-winning flutist Nicole Mitchell and a host of disparate projects and recordings. Here, Fujiwara assembles a double trio lineup, featuring Halvorson and other notables that also shines a bright light on his shrewd compositional prowess and strong leadership skills, as the band projects an uplifting modality throughout. Simply put, ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara: Triple Double
by Dan Bilawsky
The ninety seconds of scattershot guitar nicks that introduce “Diving For Quarters" can be seen as something of a trial by noodling. If you make it through that rough and prickly patch mentally intact, you're in for a treat. Asymmetrical grooving in fifteen, puckered brass glances, winding horn melodies, and stormy ensemble assaults all follow as the song runs its course. It's music that sounds as unpredictable as it does inevitable. That's just the magic of drummer Tomas Fujiwara's work. ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up: After All is Said
by Troy Collins
Tomas Fujiwara is one of the busiest drummers in New York City, with memberships in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's Sextet, baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton's Ideal Bread and the cooperative trio Thumbscrew, featuring acclaimed guitarist Mary Halvorson and veteran bassist Michael Formanek, among other projects. Formed in 2008, Fujiwara's flagship ensemble, The Hook Up, is one of the Downtown scene's most consistently creative and engaging acts.After All is Said is the band's third recording for 482 Music, following The ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up: After All Is Said
by Glenn Astarita
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara's The Hook Up features artists who are among the more prominent representatives of new directions in jazz and improvisation. Here, the leader acts as an instigator and propulsive factor via his rhythmically shaped works, comprised of rolling, tumbling and splintered movements, etched with budding thematic developments. Guitarist Mary Halvorson's distinctive phraseology comes to the forefront amid her liquefying and bent notes, eliciting otherworldly backdrops in parallel with her dynamic soloing sprees with the hornists. The ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up: The Air is Different
by John Sharpe
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara inhabits the fertile Brooklyn scene alongside guitarist Mary Halvorson, a frequent collaborator who is part of his band, The Hook Up; alongside cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, both are also featured on collective The Thirteenth Assembly's outstanding Station Direct (Important, 2011). So it's not surprising that similarly smart multifaceted compositions, delivered through tight but sufficiently loose arrangements that allow space for left field solos, are high on the agenda on the band's sophomore effort. With only the bass ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up: The Air Is Different
by Robert Bush
Boston-born and Brooklyn-based drummer Tomas Fujiwara has been stirring things up in the New York City creative music scene for some time now, working with a wide variety of players including cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and guitarist Mary Halvorson.His working ensemble, Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, features Halvorson--one of the brightest voices in the new-music continuum to emerge in years--along with muscular bassist Trevor Dunn, tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson.Fujiwara is an ...
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