Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Bonjintan: Dental Kafka

6

Bonjintan: Dental Kafka

By

View read count
Bonjintan: Dental Kafka
The sophomore effort by Akira Sakata's quartet Bonjintan, which translates into "ordinary person" might actually be better interpreted as "egalitarian." Notice that neither the quartet's name nor the album cover mention the saxophonist's name. Like the initial, self-titled 2017 release on Sakata's Daphnia Records, Dental Kafka focuses on a quartet sound and four equal musicians improvising.

Certainly due to the legendary status of the septuagenarian saxophonist, listeners will focus attention on the great man, but this release is more about a democratic sound and shared group improvisation. Sakata's partners have all worked with him and each other in the past. Jim O'Rourke sticks to double bass here with Giovanni Di Domenico at the keyboards and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto on drums.

The disc opens with the amplified vibrations of scraped cymbals and minimal pulse as if we are receiving signals from space satellites. The electronic gestures are interrupted by Sakata's raspy voice, speaking Japanese. With O'Rourke's slow spaced-out pulse the restrained piece ends with bells. The title delivers a more traditional saxophone free jazz quartet launch with a muscular rip, tear, crunch sound, but then pauses and pivots towards a germinating sound not unlike that of Australia's The Necks. The ferocity morphs into melody. Sakata picks up his clarinet as the solo introduction to "Koro Koro Donguri." After tap-tapping cymbals and the electro-mechanics of Di Domenico's Hohner pianet join, the outward explorations are again corralled into an accommodating melody, deftly navigated by the keyboardist. "Bonjin" again mines that slowly developing piano trio improvisational sound with Sakata treading gently with his clarinet. Like his brother from another mother Peter Brötzmann, Akira Sakata can, when the situation deems, deliver beautiful lines.

Track Listing

Ape Huci Kamuy (God Of Fire By Ainu People); Dental Kafka; Koro Koro Donguri; Bonjin.

Personnel

Akira Sakata
saxophone, alto
Jim O'Rourke
bass, acoustic
Additional Instrumentation

Akira Sakata: saxophone, clarinet, voice; Giovanni Di Domenico: piano, Hohner pianet

Album information

Title: Dental Kafka | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Trost Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.