BIOGRAPHY
NATSUKI TAMURA
"Natsuki Tamura's trumpet has some of the stark, melancholy lyricism of
Miles, the bristling rage of late 60s Freddie Hubbard and a dollop of
the extended techniques of W. Leo Smith and Lester Bowie." \ Mark
Keresman, JazzReview.com
"Imagine Don Cherry woke up one morning, found he'd joined an avant
goth-rock band and was booked to score an Italian horror movie. It
might be an unlikely scenario, but it goes some way to describing this
magnificent sprawl of a record from Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamurac
Hada Hada is a deeply compelling listen." \ Peter Marsh, BBC
gTamura shrewdly creates a sound world that while completely his
own also hints at the mythological and musical folklore of Asian and
European culturesc. a persona no less self-contained than that of
early, wandering bluesmen like Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton.h \ Ken
Waxman, Jazz Weekly
Japanese trumpeter and composer NATSUKI TAMURA is internationally
recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends extended
techniques with jazz lyricism. This unpredictable virtuosofs seemingly
limitless creativity led François Couture in All Music Guide to declare
that gc we can officially say there are two Natsuki Tamuras: The one
playing angular jazz-rock or ferocious free improvc and the one writing
simple melodies of stunning beautyc How the two of them live in the
same body and breathe through the same trumpet might remain a mystery.h
Born on July 26, 1951, in Otsu, Shiga, Japan, Tamura first picked up
the trumpet while performing in his junior high brass band. He began
his professional music career after he graduated from high school,
playing in numerous bands including the World Sharps Orchestra,
Consolation, Skyliners Orchestra, New Herd Orchestra, Music Magic
Orchestra, and the Satoko Fujii Ensemble, as well as in his own
ensemble. He was the trumpeter for numerous national television shows
in Japan from 1973–1982, including The Best Ten, Music Fair, Kirameku
Rhythm and many others.
In 1986, he came to the United States to study at Berklee College of
Music. He then returned to his native Japan to perform and teach at the
Yamaha Popular Music School and at private trumpet studios in Tokyo and
Saitama, before coming back to the US to study at New England
Conservatory. He made his debut recording as a leader in 1992 on
Tobifudo.
In 1997 he released the duo album How Many? with pianist Satoko Fujii,
who is also his wife. It marked the beginning of an artistic
collaboration that continues up to the present. The duo has made a
total of five CDs over the years, including 2012fs Muku. gMuku contains
some truly stunning, spine-tingling musiccits sheer beauty and elegance
is what lingers most,h wrote Dave Wayne in All About Jazz. gFujiifs
orchestral technique, clear chromatic lines and gprepared pianoh
devices contrast effectively with Tamurafs arsenal of extended
techniques which he executes with a warm, vocalized tone throughout the
trumpetfs full range,h Ted Panken said in his four-star DownBeat
review. Tamurafs collaborations with Fujii reveal an intense musical
empathy, and have garnered wide popular and critical acclaim. Jim
Santella in All About Jazz described their synergy well in his glowing
review of the couplefs 2006 Not Two disc, In Krakow, In November: gc
the creative couple forcefully demonstrates what can happen when you
let your musical ideas run freec Similarly, Tamurafs mournful trumpet
can fly high or low in search of his next surprise. Oftentimes, they
both issue plaintive moans that sing like angels on high.h Their sixth
duet album is due out in 2017.
In 1998, Tamura began recording his unaccompanied solo performances.
The stunning solo trumpet debut release, A Song for Jyaki earned a
Writers Choice 1998 in Coda magazine, and Andy Bartlett wrote in Coda,
gA fabulous set of hiccuping leaps, drones and post-bop trumpet
hi-jinx. Tamura goes from growling lows to fluid, free solo runs and
echoes not only Don Cherry's slurring anti-virtuosic chops but also
Kenny Wheeler's piercing highwire fullness.h He followed it up in 2003
with KoKoKoKe, which Jon Davis described in Exposé as gBuddhist chants
from an alien planet.h Grego Applegate Edwards explains that on
Tamurafs most recent solo album, 2013fs Dragon Nat, ghe pares down to
focus on simple unwinding melodic material, the sound of his trumpet as
a sensuous thing, a periodicity. Taken as a whole it is a kind of
environmental tone poem for the moment Natsuki is in now.h
2003 was a breakout year for Tamura as a bandleader, with the release
of Hada Hada, featuring his free jazz-avant rock quartet with Fujii on
synthesizer. Peter Marsh of the BBC had this to say about the high
voltage CD: gImagine Don Cherry woke up one morning, found he'd joined
an avant goth-rock band and was booked to score an Italian horror
movie. It might be an unlikely scenario, but it goes some way to
describing this magnificent sprawl of a record.h The quartetfs 2004
Quartet release Exit was deemed gca brilliantly executed set with a
neon glow,h by Dan McClenaghan in All About Jazz.
In 2005, Tamura made a 180-degree turn in his music with the debut of
his all acoustic Gato Libre quartet. Focusing on the intersection of
European folk music and sound abstraction, the quartet featured Fujii
on accordion, Kazuhiko Tsumura on guitar, and Norikatsu Koreyasu on
bass. The quartetfs poetic, quietly surreal performances have been
praised for their gsurprisingly soft and lyrical beauty that at times
borders on flat-out impressionism,h by Rick Anderson in CD Hotlist. Dan
McClenaghan in All About Jazz described their fourth CD, Shiro, as
gintimate, something true to the simple beauty of the folk
traditioncTamura's career has largely been about dissolving musical
boundaries. With Gato Libre and Shiro, the trumpeter extends his reach
even deeper into the prettiest, most accessible of his endeavors.h
After the unexpected passing of Norikatsu in 2012, Tamura added
trombonist Yasuko Kaneko to the group. The new configuration has toured
Europe and Japan and released its debut recording, DuDu, in 2014. gDuDu
follows the winning formula of its predecessors but, as with the other
discs, eschews the formulaic. The result is another sublimely
satisfying, elegant record that brims with raw excitement and a
reflective nostalgia,h writes Hrayr Attarian in All About Jazz. With
the tragic death of guitarist Kazuhiko Tsumura, Gato Libre is now a
trio. They will release a CD and LP in 2017.
In 2010, Tamura debuted a new electric quartet, First Meeting,
featuring Fujii, drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto and electric guitarist
Kelly Churko. Their first release, Cut the Rope, is gis a noisy, free,
impatient album, and ranks among Fujii and Tamurafs most accomplished,h
according to Steve Greenlee in the Boston Globe.
While fronting groups and recording as a leader, Tamura has also played
an integral role in nearly all of Satoko Fujiifs many projects. He is
featured on all of the CDs by Satoko Fujiifs various orchestras (NY,
Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, and Berlin) and has contributed original
compositions and arrangements to each of their 19 critically celebrated
albums. In addition, he was a featured soloist in the Satoko Fujii
Quartet, her avant-rock free jazz group that also included Tatsuya
Yoshida of The Ruins. Of his work on the quartetfs 2003 release
Minerva, Mark Keresman wrote in JazzReview.com, "Natsuki Tamura's
trumpet has some of the stark, melancholy lyricism of Miles, the
bristling rage of late 60s Freddie Hubbard and a dollop of the extended
techniques of Wadada Leo Smith and Lester Bowie."
Tamura is a vital member of Fujiifs Min-Yo Ensemble as well. gTamura
tempers his avant-garde antics with an innate lyricism,h wrote Steve
Smith of Time Out New York in his review of Fujin Raijin, the intimate
acoustic quartetfs debut CD. Hefs also been singled out for his
contributions to Fujiifs ma do ensemble. gWith Tamurafs brash and
glowing lines, the band incorporates mesmeric ostinatos and thrusting
opuses into the grand schema,h Glenn Astarita wrote in Ejazznews about
their first CD, Desert Ship.
Collaborative groups also play an important role in Tamurafs career.
Most recently, Tamura joined Fujii and two French musicians, trumpeter
Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins, to form Kaze, which made
their recording debut in 2011. In 2015, they released their third
album, Uminari, which Jazz Magazine (France) called, ga compelling
example of free jazz today. Compositions are perfectly scripted, with a
well-oiled interaction and playing of beautiful powerch The
collaborative trio Junk Box, which he co-founded in 2006 along with
pianist Fujii and drummer John Hollenbeck, plays Fujiifs gcomposed
improvisations,h graphic scores that take gensemble dynamics to great
creative heights,h says Kevin Le Gendre in Jazzwise. Their music gis
full of bluster and agitation that nonetheless retains moments of great
melodic beauty, usually by way of concise, pertly pretty motifs that
trumpeter Tamura plays in between bursts of withering roars that often
dissolve into austere overtones.h Their premiere CD, Fragment, appeared
in 2006. As Daniel Spicer wrote of Fragment in JazzWise, gTamura spits
out gloriously rude Lester-Bowie-like snorts, lows like a herd of
robotic cattle or makes like a wheezy howler monkeyc Cool and clever.h
Glenn Astarita of All About Jazz declared it gRequired listening.h
Along the way, there have been one-off cooperative groups and sideman
appearances for Tamura as well. In the Tank, an ad hoc quartet with
Fujii and electric guitarists Takayuki Kato and Elliott Sharp, is a
gtriumphant electro-acoustic adventureh according to Daniel Spicer of
Jazzwise. gThink AMM meets blues guitar meets 1970s Miles Davis and you
get some idea of the discfs flavor: a slow-moving panorama for the
ears, where sounds are systematically added, repeated, refined, and
replaced in turn,h wrote Nate Dorward in Cadence. Tamura and Fujii were
one of two piano/trumpet duos featured on the Double Duo Crossword
Puzzle CD, a live recording with Dutch trumpeter Angelo Verploegen and
pianist Misha Mengelberg. Tamura has also toured and recorded with
saxophonist Larry Ochsf Sax and Drumming Core, and appeared on albums
by drummer Jimmy Weinstein, saxophonist Raymond McDonald, and CDs by
Japanese free-jazz pioneers trumpeter Itaru Oki and pianist Masahiko
Sato. In 2014 he released Nax, a duet album with bassist Alexander
Frangenheim. Tamua has toured throughout Japan, North America, and
Europe, appearing at major jazz festivals, concert halls, and clubs.
gYoufll never fit trumpeter Natsuki Tamura into any pre-fab category,h
wrote Dan McClenaghan in All About Jazz. gHe creates his own, then
pulls you into them with him.h It is this category-defying ability that
makes him, as Marc Chenard said in Coda, gunquestionably one of the
most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today.h
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