Makoto Oka and Yoshihito Eto "Punch" (Xma)
Makoto Oka—saxophones
Yoshihito Eto--drums
Saxophone-drums duets are rather rare and it is of course a bit of a challenge. Having only two musicians allows a certain freedom because, unlike in a quartet setting, musicians don’t have to agree on chord changes, but the question remains about what to do with this freedom. Also, although it is not inevitable, in most cases the duet implies that the musicians are a lot busier than in a traditional setting, and again a question remains: busy with what?
The answers with Eto and Oka are that they stay busy at overdubbing, singing and having a lot of fun with samplers in addition to playing their acoustic instruments. Their live recording of "Yesterdays" features a call and response game with the audience as chorus. The drum part makes the song sound like an African rite. Jerome Kern would certainly be surprised to hear it!
Another famous standard, "The Sidewinder, " is given an unexpected lightening. Here, a drum machine is set on the “jungle” position and a hyper distorted guitar (or something) howls back stage before the well known theme makes a long awaited entrance on tenor sax modified by a kind of exaggerated wahwah effect. "Bitodesuteteko" is based on a voice loop of the title’s onomatopoeia and Eto here engages in a rhythmic orgy, starting from a calypso feeling and then shifting, by way of tricky metric changes, to deeply rooted African rhythms.
On other tunes however, they leave aside their various accessories and get busy playing the different parts of their own arrangements of standards. It might seem strange to talk about playing arrangements when considering a drum-sax duo, however they do seem to arrange the pieces. On "Freedom Jazz Dance," which opens the set, Oka repeats a riff between each phrase of Eddie Harris’ theme, giving a convincing combo feel. His solo here is particularly exciting and the unpredictable turns his lines take, as well as his unorthodox articulation are strongly reminiscent of Sonny Rollins in his “Our Man In Jazz” period.
"Rhythm’A Ning" is also interestingly reshaped. The sax and the drums share the exposition of the Monk’s theme, each one playing a phrase of it alternatively. So, it becomes the job of the listener to complete the melody with the rhythmic hints given by the drums. All in all, although some of the recording's fun might be less resilient after a few more close listenings, it contains great moments and remains fresh and captivating music by two imaginative musicians.