Natsuki Tamura Trio plus One

Live at Buddy, September 12, 2002

Natsuki Tamura--trumpet
Takayuki Kato--guitar
Satoko Fujii--keyboards
Takaaki Masuko--drums

Falling somewhere between Japanese free rock and experimental jazz, Natsuki Tamura never falls short of energy. His quartet is based on an open structure that incorporates a vast array of sonic textures and is confident and tough enough to trade listeners coherence for intensity. This is jazz that makes demands of listeners and refuses to let the audience sink into passive, consumerist daydreams.

His two sets left many in the crowd perplexed, but for the right reasons. The structure of the songs had an orchestral-like progression of movements, each related to the others in ways that you had to find for yourself. Sections moved surprisingly from one to the next, eventually returning to the head, but never as you expected. You had to really listen, and with the fluctuating array of tones, rhythms and disharmonies, you couldn’t help but listen.

The players maintained an interesting sense of interplay. They really listened to one another, adding sounds that were less interested in agreeing than in bringing up points of contention. The music felt less friendly banter than brash argument. But it worked, and was more intriguing than the predictable conversations musicians often fall into to please the crowd. Their interaction was based on challenge and question rather than smooth support.

The quartet, which will record these tunes this coming month, is highly electric. Even the most acoustic of the instruments, the drums, played rhythms associated with fusion or rock, both electric styles. The other musicians all played relays, feedback, samples and other electronic elements almost as much as their instruments themselves. The trumpet sounded far away, heaped with a heavy load of electronic sounds. The keyboard sound depended on synthesizers, or perhaps a better word might be “antithesizers” due to their emphasis on friction, harshness, and unexpected blends of sounds. Guitarist Kato had a full range of samples in front of him from which he selected an impressively unexpected set in every song. He used a metal ashtray more often than a pick.

This sure wasn’t the Blue Note sound. It was loud and confrontational, but not without warmth and humor. The sheer outpouring of energy warmed you up. Tamura makes no compromises, but he does make energetic, intriguing music that is unique and unusual. In the music world, that’s a rare achievement.