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Minamo
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Carla Kilhstedt, violin
Satoko Fujii, piano
Liner Notes
by Larry Ochs (ROVA Sax. Quartet)
What makes music happen? "Happen," as in magically transporting the musicians and thus the listeners into a little universe particular to a performance as it goes down. Certainly, in such a concert of improvised music - where sonic images and coherent forms rise up out of nowhere, where the musicians are in complete (unspoken) agreement on all levels -- it's as if no one can play a wrong note even though none of the notes are written down -- the rarity of that possibility, and then the given that the music is, in fact, improvised, means that there is no damn way that what I just heard - did I really hear that? - will ever happen again.
So I'm thankful for both the illicit recordings and the authorized digital-recordists who bring us at least a representation of the once-in-a-lifetime spontaneous compositions that improvisers will into life out of nowhere, without previous discussion, bringing unique personal languages developed from their own life-experience prior to the music meeting.
Luckily for this CD, Satoko Fujii and Carla Kihlstedt met twice, and both times the music was recorded. In 2002, this duo opened with a 20 minute set on the first show of Rova's 25th anniversary season in San Francisco. I had this feeling: the natural teaming of violin and piano in their hands pretty much guaranteed intriguing music. (In fact, if you think about the violin sonata: Beethoven, Ives, Feldman among many composers, loved the combination.) And we know that both of these musicians had the experience of performing in this combination in their personal experiential reservoirs as they walked onto the stage that first time.
Remembering that 2002 show later, I invited Fujii and Kihlstedt to go for it again at the 2005 Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria. This second meeting in Wels was less conducive to a great performance as both players were separately on tour, appearing in Wels on the day of the concert, part of a festival with all the distractions (nice ones) that that implies. Plus: there was a much dryer acoustic onstage, and a not-so-quiet PA necessary for the festival audience. And yet... wow!...smoking!!
What's up? My dissection of the magic leads to one primary cause: two of the most generous musicians in the improvised-music scene onstage, alone together. That generosity might, in other circumstances, be seen as a fault; ...as in "generous to a fault." But their ability to listen is a direct result of that generosity, and it in combination with some innate ability to respond to every little nuance; that is the key to what really makes the duo sing. At least that's my theory; just check out minutes 6 to 8:30 from the Wels track (track 4). That is the definitive proof of just how well they can move, feint, and change up at the smallest musical suggestion from the other player, and they show us throughout the CD just how deep improvised music can go in the hands of two great artists. They show us exactly how improvisation can become the strongest tool in a composer's toolbox, but that is the subject for another time and place.
Biographies
Carla Kihlstedt
Carla has played the violin for most of her years on this planet. It has been the vehicle that has brought her through many approaches to music-making, from her beginnings in the classical world to her present many-headed musical life. Kihlstedt has studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
She is a composer, an improviser, a vocalist, and a member of several long-term projects, including 2 Foot Yard, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Tin Hat. Aside from her various identities within these bands, Carla has had the opportunity to work with many wonderful musicians including Fred Frith, Lisa Bielawa, Ben Goldberg, Carla Bozulich, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and Tom Waits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carla_Kihlstedt
Satoko Fujii
Many say that Satoko Fujii is one of the most original voices in jazz today. She's "a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on nearly 40 albums as a leader or co-leader, the Tokyo resident synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. Since she earned her graduate diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music. Her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black has released five CDs, all of which earned places in critics' year-end Top 10 lists. In 2001, she debuted an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring Takeharu Hayakawa, Tatsuya Yoshida, and Natsuki Tamura, and their high-energy CDs were hailed by listeners worldwide. Fujii has also established herself as one of the world's leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Since 1997, she has released a steady stream of acclaimed releases for large ensemble, culminating in 2006 when she simultaneously released four big band albums: one from her New York ensemble, and one each by three different Japanese bands. In addition to playing accordion in her husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's Gato Libre quartet, she also performs in a duo with Tamura, as an unaccompanied soloist, and in ad hoc groupings with musicians working in different genres. She tours regularly appearing at festivals and clubs in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Europe.
http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~Libra/
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