feature photo: Naoto Sugahara
It’s been eighteen years since the Satoko Fujii Quartet last made a record, but this firebrand band has lost none of its edge. Dog Days of Summer (Libra Records) is a resurrection of one of Satoko Fujii’s earliest working ensembles. “The Satoko Fujii Quartet “ is a pedestrian name for a group that’s anything but, even by Fujii’s standards: along with the namesake and pianist Fujii, the always unpredictably pleasing trumpet maestro (and husband) Natsuki Tamura is in it, but so is electric bassist Takeharu Hayakawa and then there is an icon of Japanese experimental rock with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida.
As the founder and only permanent member of the progressive/noise rock drums/bass duo the Ruins, Yoshida brings a bit of the Ruins to the Fujii-led ensemble. His odd time signatures livens up every performance and Hayakawa’s brawny, fuzzy electric bass calls to mind the heavy metal bass tactics often deployed in Yoshida’s band. The collision of this style with Fujii’s and Tamura’s avant-jazz bent — most vividly on display on the tumultuous “A Parcel For You” — also often results in unexpected symmetry.
In fact, “Not Together” actually is very much so to start, the four of them blurting out the jerky pattern of notes in unison. That integration is soon broken up by Yoshida’s falling-down-the-stairs violence with Tamura and Hayakawa’s overdriven bass competing for attention.
“Metropolitan Expressway” also sees the band state a pattern in complete lockstep, but introduces a different twist as the unity fractures when they’re a half step ahead or behind, depending on the individual player. The next motif is spun out of Hayakawa’s bass, who fleshes it out with Fujii. A third section kicks off from Tamura and Yoshida, with the remaining two improvising around them, and then a drums extravaganza is tossed in for good measure.
Despite of the fury that this quartet is capable of, there’s melody galore. Hayakawa launches “Haru wo Matsu” featuring a delicate strain, followed by Fujii’s own take on it and the whole band afterwards plays a fusion-ish riff. But Yoshida refuses to be confined and his complex rhythms currents a counter-current that assures us that the group isn’t gliding on the middle of the road.
Yoshida’s advanced percussion is underscored with his timbre-sensitive drum solo during “Circle Dance,” sandwiched between a steady bass-drums groove that provides the foundation for Tamura’s singular style of improvisation. “Dog Days of Summer” is paced by a rockin’, plodding Hayakawa/Yoshida march balanced out by Fujji’s and Tamura’s straightforward melody with occasional diversions that ward off monotony.
The enlivened individual performances layered through most of “Low” converge at the end to a culminating finale, one of Fujii’s many clever arranging devices.
These diverse set of compositions came from just one pen — that of Fujii’s — but as a testament to her leadership, these were clearly written with the idiosyncratic talent at her disposal.
Dog Days of Summer might be called jazz-rock, but like anything else Satoko Fujii undertakes, she does it on her own uncompromising terms, skillfully incorporating the most dauntless sides of everyone involved. Get iDog Days of Summer now from Bandcamp.
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