(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Jazz) [WEB] Satoko Fujii & Joe Fonda with Natsuki Tamura - Duet - 2016, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Joe Fonda: bass-flute
Satoko Fujii: piano
Natsuki Tamura: trumpet (2)

Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda: Duet *****
By BUDD KOPMAN
October 1, 2016
Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda: Duet The story behind the creation of the miraculous album, Duet by pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda is one of those things that makes one a believer in karma.
Although both have played with reed man Gebhard Ullmann in various configurations, Fujii and Fonda had never met, and had not heard much, if any, of each other's music. Now, this might seem strange since both are acknowledged leaders of free/avant-garde jazz, and both have powerful musical personalities and immediately recognizable sounds. However, that such highly creative and directed musicians, closely focused on their own playing, composing and touring, had never met is almost natural, despite knowing each other by reputation.
The meeting ended up happening because of a suggestion made to Fonda that he should listen to Fujii's music and would then want to play with her. Fujii's music made a deep impression on Fonda, and he contacted her. For her part, Fujii was surprised to hear from Fonda and they managed to get together on November 14, 2015 at the Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center, in Middletown, Connecticut for the 10th Annual Jazz CT Composers and Improvisers Festival.
This recording was made the next night in Portland, Maine at the Woodfords Congregational Chapel for the Dimensions in Jazz Series run by Paul Lichter. The superb quality of the sound is immediately evident—the piano sings and the bass is woody and fully focused; you are there.
The music created de novo is reminiscent of an earlier Fujii encounter with Carla Kihlstedt, recorded as Minamo. It is just as intense and just as amazingly organic in its development. Fujii spoke of how she and Kihlstedt connected, and in that mysterious manner of supreme improvisors, create coherent music with no preparation; the same happens here with Fonda. In the former, Kihlstedt floats above Fujii, while here Fonda bubbles below her.
Fonda is an extremely powerful player, and from a good playback system, will almost knock you over. He is quite used to playing in loose co-operative groups, but, in recordings at least, not so much in such a completely free and exposed venue, which could be said to be Fujii's forte. In any case, Fonda matches Fujii as far as being a "force of nature" and pushes as much as he is pulled. The energy flowing between them is palpable, exciting and occasionally almost unbearable.
The only quibble is that there is "only" just under forty-nine minutes of music presented in two tracks, the first over three times as long as the second. Perhaps the rest of the music will appear someday.
The first track is a bravura performance that features many of the musical mannerisms that will be familiar to those who follow Fujii and Fonda. The duo produces astonishing musical textures that arise out of the mists. They engage in what sounds like joyous battle at times, only to swerve in a flash to produce ethereal sounds that float in mid-air.
The audience is silent, and must have been holding its collective breath. At the end of thirty-seven continuous minutes of intense concentration, the condensed atmosphere virtually melts as everyone murmurs in amazement at what had just taken place.
The second track, taken from the second set, includes Fujii's husband and musical partner, trumpeter/sound-maker Natsuki Tamura, and so naturally the textures produced are different. As might be expected, Fujii and Tamura know each other extremely well, but Fonda is definitely not a third wheel, and indeed, matches Tamura's virtuosic sound production when playing the flute in the last third of the track.
Duet is a perfect example of the paradox that is Creative Improvised Music in that the recording captures and seals in amber a spontaneous musical happening which can never, ever occur again. Those familiar with this genre will revel in its easy virtuosity and deep musical spirituality; for those unfamiliar, both Duet and Minamo are phenomenal performances.
Track Listing: Track 1; Track 2.
Personnel: Joe Fonda: bass, flute; Satoko Fujii: piano; Natsuki Tamura: trumpet.
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Long Song Records | Style: Modern Jazz

Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda With Natsuki Tamura: Duet ****1/2
By KARL ACKERMANN
September 30, 2016
Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda with Natsuki Tamura: Duet Two of creative music's most inventive forces come together on Duet. Musical restiveness is at the core of pianist/accordionist and composer Satoko Fujii. With a catalogue three-score deep, she has covered formations from large orchestra to solo where the common denominator is her wide and daring exploration of improvisational spaces. Her adroit aptitude for moving through—and sometimes combining—elements of her native Japanese folk music, classical and discordant free improvisation, have made her one of the more consistently interesting artists in music. When not leading her own groups (or partnering with her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura) Fujii has recorded with pianist Myra Melford, Tin Hat's violinist Carla Kihlstedt, and fronted a trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black.
The renowned bassist Joe Fonda has a dream resume including a long musical relationship with Anthony Braxton, and diverse associations with Wadada Leo Smith, Archie Shepp and a duo with Xu Fengxia who plays the Chinese guzheng -a sixteen-string zither. Fonda has shared the billing with pianist Michael Jefry Stevens for the past fifteen years of the globally focused Fonda-Stevens Group. More recently, Fonda recorded—and continues to perform with—Barry Altschul's 3dom Factor on Tales of the Unforeseen (TUM Records, 2015), a trio that includes Mostly Other People Do the Killing saxophonist Jon Irabagon. Dating back to the mid-70s, the prolific Fonda has released a dozen recordings as a leader.
Neither Fujii nor Fonda had been familiar with the other's music at the time that the bassist reached out to Fujii for some New York shows, a collaboration that immediately clicked and led to Duet. The album consists of two extended tracks, recorded live in Portland, Maine in 2015 as part of the Portland Conservatory of Music's Dimensions in Jazz series. Occupying three-quarters of the album, at more than thirty-seven minutes, is the improvised tribute, "Paul Bley." Opening with Fonda's deep, resonant plucking, Fujii lyrically joins in but quickly moves to a more angular approach. As their techniques broaden, the pianist works the inside of the instrument as Fonda plums the depths of the bass, scratching surfaces and ingraining sharp edges. Midway through the piece, the duo has morphed into an avant-garde classicalism, Fujii slowing to longer melodic lines, Fonda, briefly switching to flute. The pair slowly, tentatively rebuild the intensity before closing on a serene note.
Tamura joins the duo for part of "JSN," the acronym for each player's given name. The trumpeter's idiosyncratic fluctuations blending with, then giving way to, Fujii's searching passage where fragments of melody share space with technical flourishes. As the piece progresses, Fonda's bass—even at its sharpest—retains a full, round sound. He later returns to the flute as he and Tamura join in some high-pitched dissonance, Fujii adding the percussive effects.
As occasionally happens in live recordings of extended works, "JSN" fades out shortly past the eleven-minute mark. Duet, especially where "Paul Bley" is concerned, is a masterful outing where Fujii and Fonda work with empathy and inspiration. The music is by turns reflective and intense, always focused and often striking in its complex beauty.
Track Listing: Paul Bley; JSN.
Personnel: Joe Fonda: bass, flute; Satoko Fujii:piano; Natsuki Tamura: trumpet (2).
Year Released: 2016 | Record Label: Long Song Records | Style: Modern Jazz