Arisa Sunaga
September 7, 2005
Satin Doll, Roppongi
Arisa Sunaga--vocals
Katsunori Fukay—piano
Getao Takahashi—bass
Masanori Suzuki—trumpet
Akihiro Tsuzuki—percussion
Yoshihiko Miza—percussion
Yoshiaki Hashimoto --trombone
Arisa Sunaga hardly fits the image of tough salsa that she delivers. After the music starts and she begins singing, her pleasant manner off-stage and calm, attractive appearance are revealed as just a cover. Her singing and arranging are burly, raw and fiery. Some Latin singers go for the cute approach, but Arisa knows that Latin music can display feminine authority as much as traditional machismo.
Arisa (using her first name fits the intimacy she creates) sings in Spanish with sharpness and intensity. Her tone is like bebop saxophone--dry, sharp and direct. She has taken the sweetness out, but filled it up with a full range of feeling. She has a depth to her phrasing that can only come from experience. She's intuitive, but also practiced. Her voice is as much an instrument as the other musicians in the group, the cream of Tokyo's bounteous Latin crop. Her voice both soared up and away and remained firmly grounded in the realities of life.
The selection of songs, most of them drawn from the vast body of Latin music, allowed her vocals to run their impressively full range. "Sabor a Mi" was beautiful, slow and sultry, with an undeniable sexiness to it that was far being passive or tame. Arisa also explained each song carefully, as much to prepare herself maybe for the inner core of the tune as to let the audience know what the Spanish lyrics were about. She really digs into the meaning and into the feeling.
The arrangements balanced looseness and coherence, delivered with obvious delight by the Latin-savvy band. For once, a cha-cha-cha was not boring, but rather wild. Often, Latin groups seem to play a traditional rhythm out of respect, but Arisa gave a nod to tradition by updating and re-energizing. "Silencio" started with a great bass intro from Takahashi, before slipping into a thick, juicy rhythm under her forceful vocals. Solos by all the band members were right into the atmosphere set by Arisa, intense, direct and very cool. The band was right there with her, moving and pulling and adding and accenting everywhere. When her father, a percussionist, joined the band, everyone sat up. His deep experience with Latin music was clearly passed on to his daughter!
Mostly, though, Arisa kept the music raw and pure. This was not a polished band, but in the best sense. They played together and enjoyed themselves like people, not like overly practiced performers. They picked up and flew on certain solos, and dropped into rigorous polyrhythms at other times--all naturally, and humanly done. Arisa is clearly not a woman you'd cross, at least not more than once, but she uses that inner core to establish a level of musical intensity that time and time again seemed to just magically pick up the whole room and let it dance and sing all together.