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Out May 17 – Natsuki Tamura & Jim Black's Exuberant new album NatJim via Libra Records Few albums convey the pure pleasure of music making better than NatJim (May 17, 2024, Libra Records), the first duo recording by trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura and drummer Jim Black in 25 years. It’s an inspired reunion. Goading each other to greater and greater heights of improvisational creativity, they lock together effortlessly in vibrant, playful, and surprising tandem. Their connection is nearly telepathic, allowing them to spring surprises on each other, change direction without warning, and engage in give-and-take that leaves room for each to express themselves to the fullest possible extent. Simply put, this is a career highlight for two musicians who have already helped define the cutting edge of improvised music in their lifetimes. Tamura and Black have met on record before, starting with the trumpeter’s White and Blue (Buzz Records, 1999), a CD split between duets with Black and fellow drummer Aaron Alexander. Tamura and Black were also members of the Satoko Fujii Four along with bassist Mark Dresser, which recorded two CDs, Live in Japan and When We Were Therein 2004 and 2005 respectively. Then after an interval of 18 years, they reunited when Black came to Japan with trombonist Josephine Nagorsnik in September 2023 and performed with Fujii and Tamura for several days. “It was really fun, ” Tamura says. “After that, I had plans to go to Europe in November, so I thought I'd record with Jim while I was there.” In the studio, after Tamura’s minimal explanation of his compositions, the two simply jumped into it and let the music take them wherever it wanted to go. The first six of the album’s nine tracks feature Tamura’s pieces, that last three are completely improvised. Tamura gave them titles after listening to the finished performances. “Morning City” gets things off to a boisterous start, with Tamura’s bright tone in service to some inventive melodic development while Black’s boundlessly creative orchestration of his kit generates a bold spectrum of timbre and extended rhythmic motifs. Their bond seems to only strengthen as they continue with “Afternoon City, ” as Tamura uses a mute to reach back to the “jungle sound” of early Ellington and Black unleashes one surprise change in rhythm after another. They play with tempo on “City of Dusk, ” speeding up and slowing down so the music breathes. Tamura’s dusky, growling lines leave lots of room for Black’s maximalist drumming, dense and busy without ever becoming chaotic. The elaborate “City of Night” is an album highlight, a startling, kaleidoscopic exercise in musical imagination. They open by exchanging unaccompanied solos, each playing with listeners’ expectations. Their phrases slow down or speed up unpredictably, dense edgy motifs suddenly blossom into spacious lyricism, and tone colors change continuously. Then Tamura bursts into urgent abstract vocalizations before they completely change course into a new area. It’s an exhilarating, freewheeling performance full of close interaction and attention to sonic detail. Black is a pioneer of incorporating influences from around the world into a jazz context, most notably post-rock and Balkan rhythms. On “Quiet City, ” his relentless rock-inflected beat drives Tamura’s haunting, heart-piercing inventions. Tamura not only can improvise compelling melody in the jazz tradition, he is a master of extended technique. “Noisy City” showcases his highly rhythmic sound abstractions in sync with Black’s forceful beat. Even without a compositional framework, the last three improvisations display an organic feeling of completeness. Black swathes the opening of “Calm City” with cymbal washes that enfolds Tamura’s pensive musings. True to form, they deliberately break the mood with a contrasting abstract sound episode before returning to the atmospheric tone of the opening. On “Bright City, ” they juggle roiling tempos, more vocalizing from Tamura, and just generally delight in each other’s company, as they have throughout the album. Japanese trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends jazz lyricism with extended techniques. In 1997, he and pianist Satoko Fujii, who is also his wife, released their first duo album, How Many? (Leo Lab). They have recorded eight duo CDs together. Kurt Gottschalk writes in the New York City Jazz Record that their rapport “feels like a secret language … It’s rare to sense this level of intuition between musicians.” 2003 was a breakout year for Tamura as a bandleader, with the release of Hada Hada (Libra), featuring his free jazz-avant rock quartet with Fujii on synthesizer. In 2005, he made a 180-degree turn with the debut of his all-acoustic Gato Libre quartet, focusing on the intersection of European folk music and sound abstraction. Now a trio, their most recent CD is Koneko (Libra), released in 2020. Writing in the New York City Jazz Record, Tyran Grillo said, “By turns mysterious and whimsical.” In 1998, Tamura released the first of his unaccompanied trumpet albums, A Song for Jyaki (Leo Lab). He followed it up in 2003 with KoKoKoKe (Polystar/NatSat and in 2021, he celebrated his 70th birthday with Koki Solo (Libra), which Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz described as “quirky fun in an age of uncertainty.” In addition to appearing in many of Fujii’s ensembles, Tamura also has worked with collaborative groups. Most recently, he joined Fujii and master French composer-improvisers, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, to form the collective quartet Kaze. With five CDs to their credit since 2011, Kaze “redefines listening to music, redefines genres, redefines playing music, ” according to Stef Gjissels of Free Jazz Blog. Tamura’s category-defying abilities make him “unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today, ” said Marc Chenard in Coda. Drummer Jim Black has been a leading voice in creative music for nearly 40 years. While still at Berklee School of Music in Boston, he formed Human Feel with childhood friends Chris Speed and Andrew D’Angelo. After moving to New York in 1991, he quickly became an integral member of the burgeoning Downtown scene, working with some of the leading bands of the time, including Tim Berne’s Bloodcount, Dave Douglas’ Tiny Bell Trio, and Ellery Eskelin’s trio, among many others. As a member of the collective group Pachora (with Speed, Skuli Sverrisson, and guitarist Brad Shepik) Black was one of the leaders in the study and adaptation of Balkan music into jazz-based music. He is also a bandleader in his own right, releasing six CDs by his quartet AlasNoAxis for the Winter & Winter label between 2000 and 2013. In 2016, he moved to Berlin and continues to perform and record as sideman and as a leader of different groups, including a trio with pianist Elias Stemesder and bassist Thomas Morgan and his quartet, Jim Black and the Schrimps. He currently teaches at the Bern University of the Arts, in Bern, Switzerland. Natsuki Tamura & Jim Black – NatJim Libra Records – 102-074 – Recorded November 2023 Release date May 27, 2024 |
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