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Arina Fujiwara: Neon
ByFujiwara's nine-piece orchestra is conducive to a kind of baroque concerto grosso setup, with jazz ensemble and string quartet pitted against one another. She uses it this way in "Yuki Ga Furu," the album opener, a minor-mode piece in a meter of three. Classical strings lead the exposition, then the rhythm section steps in with elegant solos from Fujiwara and bassist Dan Finn. Toward the end, the texture thickens to encompass the full ensemble, with agitated tremolo in the strings and sudden punches in the piano. The density ends abruptly, leaving cello alone to reprise the first theme as the piece concludes. The performance has a delicate early-music quality, but refracted through Fujiwara's idiosyncratic jazz lens. Her improvised embellishments are especially piquant. She sometimes approaches the minor third from above (from the major third), to create an unusual blue-note-in-reverse effect. For singers and guitarists, the typical blues move would be to slide up toward the major third from below, stopping on the desired neutral third (not major, not minor). Pianists have created all sorts of wonderful techniques for simulating this effect and the blues intonation. Fujiwara's major-minor ornament adds to the tool box in a unique way. An embellishment is a tiny thing that can be tremendously affecting. Her unusual little blue cry is that.
Fujiwara and her euphonious nonet work with a distinctive variety of sounds, feels, textures, and genres. In her extraordinary arrangement of "Hotaru Koi," the children's folk song, the band suddenly lifts off into a reverberant electronic world that encourages a faster, more dissonant intensity, an expanded sound palette, and a freer type of improvisation (check Brad Kang's guitar, YouTube at bottom of page). Stylistic contrasts between string quartet and jazz combo are finely balanced. As with Charlie Parker with Strings (Mercury, 1950), the strings do not try to swing; the jazz improvisers envelope them in swing. In "Neon," the title cut, Vid Jamnik's vibes and her piano create a shimmering unison blend that sounds like a single instrument. It all works.
Track Listing
Yuki Ga Furu; Hotaru Koi; Neon; Komorebi; Vol. 1; Maple Leaf Rag.
Personnel
Arina Fujiwara
pianoJaycee Cardoso
violinSammy Andonian
violinJeremy Klein
violaClara Cho
celloVid Jamnik
vibraphoneBrad Kang
guitarDan Finn
bassMikkel Blaesild Vuust
drumsAlbum information
Title: Neon | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Self-Produced
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Arina Fujiwara
Album Review
Katharine (Katchie) Cartwright
Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
Neon
Self-Produced
Scott Joplin
Dan Finn
Brad Kang
Charlie Parker