Nat Jim Sat

February 3, 2025

Shinjuku Pit Inn 

Natsuki Tamura田村夏樹--trumpet

Jim Blackジム・ブラック--drums

Satoko Fujii藤井郷子--piano

Guest: Ittetsu Takemura竹村一哲 --drums

From the opening of the first song, a slow build from Black on cymbals, this trio, with a special guest, played unpredictable music that put its improvised nature right up front. The music they created for the following two sets could better be called an infusion of energy than jazz. But that’s the intention, and the audience looked fascinated with everything they played.  

Again and again, Tamura’s trumpet cut across the rumbling left hand of Fujii and layered sometimes lush, sometimes piercing notes over the rhythmic flow. His trumpeting ranged from melancholy and calming to fiercely explosive. Fujii’s piano was part percussion and part melodic, and she also played directly on the piano strings, which added an eerie tone.

The back and forth between Black and Takemura was exceptionally dynamic. For many songs, they started slowly and raised the temperature gradually, listening to each other carefully. They used all parts of the drums, commanding a rotation of sticks, brushes, mallets, and fingers to get the sounds they wanted.

On many of the tunes, all four played one by one, exploring their individual paths before uniting together for dynamic endings. Those endings made it clear that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts but also that the parts are interesting on their own. That’s the promise of freely improvised music, and these four made good on that promise again and again.

The delightful ebb and flow from minimalist soloing to full-on intensity showed their impressive range of expression. Even when they played simultaneously or very fast, the individual notes still came out clearly. They played the silences as much as the notes or beats, creating a continual series of remarkable musical textures.

The quartet was a perfect balance of instruments and approaches. No one overshadowed anyone else, and everyone listened to the others, knowing where to jump into the mix to find new sounds, movements, or directions. It was not music for the traditional-minded. But it was music that might clue in many minds to interesting ways of making dynamic, compelling music.