Tomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March

Drummer, composer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara did not set out to rebut the saying "familiarity breeds contempt," but March from his sextet Triple Double does just that. His combination of three pairs of double instruments—guitarists Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook, cornet/trumpets Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi, plus double drummers Gerald Cleaver and Tomas Fujiwara himself—creates respect, the opposite of contempt. The harmonious and organic nature of this music, first heard on their self-titled debut album Triple Double (Firehouse 12, 2017), is due to the relationships Fujiwara has cultivated in differing ensembles. He performs with Halvorson and Bynum in the latter's Plustet, Sextet, and 9-tette, and in The Thirteenth Assembly, with Halvorson in her Code Girl and Thumbscrew, and he also has a long-standing duo with Bynum. Then there is Fujiwara's trio with Seabrook and Alessi, which released Variable Bets (Relative Pitch, 2014). This leaves us with Cleaver, one of the most in-demand drummers working in creative and improvised music today. Here, just as on the initial release, the two drummers are simpatico and their approaches nearly indistinguishable.

How does Fujiwara negotiate three pairs of musicians? He does so through organization and arrangement. The opener "Pack up, Coming For You" pairs one guitar and one trumpet in a duo, before swapping for the second pair, and finally bringing both pairs together with drums as the substructure. "Life Only Gets More" is a gentle ballad, quietly coaxed by the stuttering swing of drums. "Wave Shake And Angle Bounce" could be mistaken for a Henry Threadgill composition, with its tightly woven discipline and "Docile Fury Ballad" burns with a heavy metal thunder. Fujiwara's music has always been complex, yet it remains very accessible. Triple Double, like his band The Hook Up never loses its center, or the listener's ear. "The March Of The Storm Before The Quiet Of The Dance" opens quietly before increasing pace, and crossing into more and more difficult terrain, but Fujiwara's compositions always maintain the whole. The album ends with "For Alan, Part II," a continuation of a duo Cleaver and Fujiwara began with their 2017 eponymous release. Its 17+ minutes are a celebrative opus of meditation.

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