Natsuki Tamura’s Multi-Tracked Solo Album

At the end of last week, Libra Records released Summer Tree, the latest solo album recorded by Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. This is only his fifth such album, the fourth, Koki Solo, having been released under pandemic conditions this past July. Tamura’s discography is modest, particularly when compared with the extensive number of releases by his wife, pianist Satoko Fujii. Tamura’s previous album had him playing not only trumpet but also piano and wok, along with vocal work. On Summer Tree he confines himself to trumpet, piano, and wok; but Fujii joins him with vocals on one of the tracks.

Taken as a whole, Summer Tree can be approached as a four-movement suite on the topic of summer. The title track is the first of four. It is followed by “Summer Color,” “Summer Wind,” and “Summer Dream.” “Summer Wind” is the track on which Fujii performs with Tamura.

Actually, one needs to be careful about that “perform” verb. The entire album is a sophisticated product of overdubbing techniques. While, on Koki Solo, Tamura explored a rich diversity of sonorities, I am inclined to believe that each of the tracks was a “live” performance, particularly when he is exploring the different ways in which a variety of objects can strike the body of his wok. Summer Tree, on the other hand, consists of four moderately long pieces, each of which is based on a foundation track against which subsequent tracks are performed and overlaid. The foundations for “Summer Tree” and “Summer Dream” were composed, whereas all of the overlaid tracks for “Summer Color” and “Summer Wind” were improvised.

Fujii’s contribution amounts to the “voice” of that summer wind. Her performance is entirely non-verbal, blending  a deep exploration of phonemic diversity with shrieks, trills, and occasional barks. Those of my generation are likely to detect more than a little “family resemblance” to the early solo vocal performances by Meredith Monk. However, while Monk tended to create for theatrical settings, Fujii and Tamura confine their attention to that “middle ground” where chamber music and jazz overlap.

Nevertheless, there is some sense of the theatrical in the techniques through which these four compositions reflect on the concept of summer. In spite of the idyllic photograph on the album cover shown above, there is a sense of tension that prevails across the entire album. Thus, while the sonorities encountered on the Koki Solo album were exploratory, the overlaid tracks on Summer Tree may leave many listeners wondering if (with apologies to James Joyce) the experience is one of a nightmare from which they are trying to awaken. Given that both Koki Solo and Summer Tree were created under pandemic conditions, that experience is likely to resonate with a discomforting reality.

Most readers probably know by now that Amazon.com is not particularly “on the ball” when it comes to releases by Libra Records; so, as usual, the best source for this new album is the CD Store Web page on the Libra Records Web site.