Caught Live at Hot House

May 3, 2002

Mitsuaki Furuno—bass
Seiji Tada—sax
Junji Hirose—drums

Hot House is a world unto itself. The intimacy of the small space puts unique pressures on players to really connect to the audience. Not every musician works well in that situation, but these three players know how to adjust to the space.

The first rule is obviously to relax, which they did, and the only other rule is to play well, which they did and then some. While customers filled up on the tasty well-cooked food from the “katsu katsu” festival, they could hear three players give nicely chosen standards their personal stamp.

Furuno has a loose-stringed, quick-moving style that is lyrical and flowing. He filled in harmonies from all over the fretboard, making the absence of a piano hardly noticeable. Moving from walking bass lines to two and three fingered chords, he gave tunes from Ellington and Gershwin a unique, bottom-heavy feeling. His intros on every tune were complicated, intriguing and clever.

Tada worked well on top of this thick padding of deep and mid-range tones. His fingerwork is always amazing—quick, fluent and deeply felt—but without miking, the beauty of his tone also filled the room. Both Furuno and Tada are good listeners, so their interactions were especially intriguing. Tada added bits and pieces underneath Furuno’s lengthy, melodic soloing and Furuno knew right where Tada was taking the piece, both musically and emotionally.

The drums can overpower everything in the small space of Hot House, but Hirose obviously saw that as a challenge. His control over volume was equal to his control over rhythmic textures. He is one of those drummers whose solos still carefully hold the echoes of the melody line, never disappearing off into rat-a-tat self-indulgence.

The standout of the evening was Furuno’s take on “Norwegian Wood.” With a wonderful intro that moved in and out of the instantly recognizable melody, he moved the chords and counterpoints into complex, moving expressions. The fourteen people who had reserved a spot in Hot House went as wild as the small space allowed. At the end of the second set, everyone was fully satisfied, with food and music, and Furuno, Tada and Hirose were working over a stack of tonkatsu and telling everyone good night.