Kumi Adachi and Club Pangaea

Blues Alley Japan January 13, 2009

Kumi Adachi – guitars

Hiroyuki Noritake – drums

Ko Shimizu – bass

Keizo Kawano – keyboards

The startling power and high energy of guitarist Kumi Adachi is unusual for many reasons. As a woman from Osaka playing a muscular, macho style of music originating in the 1970s, she seems to not have any problem with playing outside the categories expected of her. That’s just fine because she plays the electric guitar with an individual dedication and fiery passion that are a rare find in any category.

One of the most fluid and accomplished guitarists I have heard in a long time, Adachi also knows how to storm the stage and take control of the entire club. Her drop-dead looks and dimpled smile might make guitar-heads suspicious, but Adachi has as much going on inside as out. She is one of the most dynamic performers and accomplished musicians to hit Tokyo’s stages. It’s good the Osaka fans have let her come on up!

Starting out her set in mid-January at her home away from home in Tokyo, Blues Alley, where she has played several great gigs over the last year, she eased into the soft and pretty “Peaceful Time” off her most recent CD, “Winners.” This tune sounds soothing, but, like all her songs, is not that easy to play, and certainly not to play right, as she unerringly does. After that, the energy ratcheted up from the calm melody of Carlos Santana’s “Europa,” to a powerful finish. Adachi and her right-on bandmates, from T-Square and other well-known groups, took the song higher and faster and wilder, ending with a scorching intensity that they would pursue for the rest of the evening.

Whether channeling Santana, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola or Jimi Hendrix, Adachi plays like she means it. Her version of “Little Wing” is astounding. You can’t play that song well without fully feeling it, and Adachi, for all the trappings of fusion and sexiness, doesn’t have an inauthentic bone in her body. In particular, her fingerbones are authentic! She plays with ferocity and feeling, yet technique and grace, too. On slow stately tunes, she make the notes ache with long-held bends, and on fast tunes, she keeps the notes burning with just the right level of flame, never too much to burn the total sound, but certainly never too little.

She never clutters a solo, as the tendency is with many jazz-rock bands. Instead, she lets each and every note speak directly and passionately for itself. A tune like “Catchball” rockets along with great complexity, as does the pentatonic complexity of “Pentacle World,” but then she is not afraid of slowing down into a tune like “Seventh Inning,” with loads of feeling, satisfaction and calm interior space. Her solos are architectural wonders of sharp clarity. When she throws in a bit of “Giant Steps” mid-stream soloing on a song based on the “sorya” chant of a south Osaka ‘matsuri’ festival, you gotta dig it! Like only the very best fusion, it’s hard as hell to play but infinitely pleasing to hear.

With energy to burn, she sounds triumphant on every tune, but not in the typical ego-centered way of too many lead guitarists. She has an unforced, intimate style that sinks back into the sound while the other band members take over. She supports, even though she is clearly the spark and fire at the center of it all. Your ears, and eyes, keep returning to her, even when she steps back, but her on-stage charisma isn’t an act, but a natural extension of her stellar technique and a high-level passion. Adachi is a don’t-miss guitarist. Guitar hero? Guitar heroine!