Izumi Masakiyo Trio
Ko-Ko, Shibuya
June 25, 2009
Izumi Masakiyo - drums
Atsushi Ikeda – alto sax
Tomoyuki Shima – bass
This trio led by drummer Masakiyo plays fast and loose--in all the right ways. Digging into works by Ornette Coleman and Thelonius Monk, they have a ragged, angular style that pulses with energy. Even when playing standards like “Lover Man” or “All the Things You Are,” the trio’s open modal style had a strong kick. Ikeda sketched out the melody with a very free sax hand, following long lines of melody into multiple directions. Masakiyo loosened time into his own fabulously complex idea of how rhythms work. In between these two, Shima kept their centrifugal forces anchored.
The tensions in the trio were their strength. A loose, modal melody against a disruptive rhythm often means the group is just not together, but here, the togetherness was at another, higher level altogether. The three played neither too fast nor too slow, but at an organically evolving tempo that could easily speed up or ease down, altogether as one. The songs were never pre-set, but able to find their own way forward. This kind of unplanned brinkmanship makes for exciting discoveries as each song was pushed to its limits. With the spirit of Ornette Coleman and Thelonius Monk informing their approach, each song felt freshly opened and explored in vital ways.
Thelonius Monk, three of whose tunes filled the evening, set the approach. The unusual rhythms and angular melody lines formed the trio’s basic vocabulary. From there they had a lot more to say, dilating and contracting each of the songs to find out just how far it could go. The long solos were a great pleasure. Everyone in the trio had a lot to say on the hidden inner workings of the tunes. Ikeda poured out long, broken, direct lines and his intros, such as on “Lover Man” were extended and delightful. Ikeda and Shima really drove Masakiyo to longer and longer responses on the give and take parts of his solos.
The trio took these workhorse songs and rode them hard. That intensity was greatly appealing, even though the crowd was small on the hot, humid mid-week evening. Masakiyo has his own style of drumming, which is muscular yet sensitive, dramatic but not melodramatic, time-heavy but still light and fluid. That is why he is the first-call drummer for many of the most serious jazz groups in Tokyo. He played with a nifty set of contradictions, but which is always at the heart of the most splendid, uncompromising jazz.
