Naruyoshi Kikuchi and Hiroshi Minami “Flowers and Water”

『花と水』
(EWE 2009)

Naruyoshi Kikuchi 菊地成孔 – soprano and tenor sax
Hiroshi Minami 南博 – piano

This recording of soft, delicate duets is a real aural gem. The sound has found the ‘sweet spot’ of recording, playing and replaying, so that every touch on the keyboard and breathe in the sax contributes to a strikingly lovely sound. These extemporaneous duets were recorded over a couple days in Ginza, but their lyrical flow sounds as if it was planned long, long ago.

The songs are a mix of standards and improvisations, with a Bach piece deftly slipped in towards the end. The improvisations, numbered 1 to 7, are intense interplays of feeling and composing in the moment. Kikuchi and Minami have played together for many years, so they know each other’s inclinations, but they do not rest with just simple musical friendliness. Instead, they push each other, leaping out ahead to suggest directions, laying back to comment on the last line, working together to make more than the sum of two parts. The improvisations, all called “Flowers and Water,” take that metaphor as inspiration, for the organic growth of each song and as poetic conceptualization of what the music can become. Like most great improvisers, they take their muses outside the confines of the jazz world.

And yet, these improvisations are very much of the jazz world. The standards they chose fit perfectly into the mood of the improvisations, and yet influence them as well. However they were recorded, the interspersing of standards and improvisations enhances both, so that, unlike most CDs, it is both and more! “Blue in Green” is given a very sophisticated harmonic exploration, with both Minami and Kikuchi fully immersed in the modal fluidity of the song. Mingus’ “Orange Was the Color of Her Dress” is bluesy and gutsy without having to be stuck in overly bluesy limits. Likewise, “Lush Life” and “You Must Believe in Spring” move far away from their standard treatments, and flow from and into the improvisation cuts on either side.  

These are all very pretty songs and clear statements of aesthetics. Like the best ECM recordings, with which these songs have a lot in common, this CD offers nourishment to the many different ways music can be listened to. There is thematic unity with vibrant feeling with intuitive energy, a garden and an ikebana arrangement both. In short, “Flowers and Water” is just the right title for the beautiful music they create.