feature photo: Mai Kawai
As enormously productive Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura both are in making record after record of original material, it seems most Fujii-led records feature Tamura, and most Tamura-led records include Fujii. And then there are seven records headlined by both as a duo. The husband-wife, trumpet-piano team is most probably the most musically advanced married couple in the entire world and when they put their collective inventiveness together for intimate piano/trumpet forays, the essence of bands as small as Gato Libre and as massive for Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York are laid bare. That certainly goes for that seventh duo record, the just-released Pentas.
Much of the genius of Fujii and Tamura is that the genius manifests itself when they are at their most child-like and counterintuitive. Fujii sets forth “Not Together” in a Morse-code like fashion, quickly picked up in perfect sync by Tamura (putting to lie that title) and he settles on a countervailing staccato line of his own. But when he steps away, Fujii goes deeper on her original thought, sketching out one of the most original piano solos you’ll hear. “Renovation” is a call-and-response whereby Fujii plays the same note on opposite ends of the piano and Tamura plays almost comically until the two speed things up and they quickly go from child-like to real serious musicianship. By contrast, “Wind Chill” just flows, without any regard for strict tempo and some formidable trumpet chops on display.
Sometimes, the simplest gestures make the biggest impacts; on “Stillness,” Fujii presses down on a single key and Tamura paints heartfelt sketches around it. Fujii later engages in a soliloquy where the notes dribble out with simple grace. “Pentas” has a trumpet motif not too dissimilar to Wayne Shorter’s “Nefertiti,” and Fujii engages with Tamura to flesh it out. For “Circle,” Tamura and Fujii take turns making gorgeous asides, getting themselves lost in the melody.
Even apart from using deceptive simplicity, Fujii and Tamura come up with an endless well of ideas to apply to the piano/trumpet format. Fujii’s piano touch evolves from delicate to dramatic over the course of the second half song before a brief revisit of the opening theme by Tamura. Tamura pairs his plunged horn with Fujii’s piano on “Itsumo Itsumo,” playfully engaging in some back-and-forth. They change things up again on “Rising” with a prepared piano and Tamura investing more fervor into his trumpet.
Pentas is now available through NotTwo Records.
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