3 Duos

Satoko Fujii/Carla Kihlstedt; Satoko Fujii/Natsuki Tamura and Carla Kihlstedt/Matthias Bossi

photo credit: Craig Morse

Thursday SEP 27, 8PM

Bezanson Recital Hall

 

General Admission: $10; $5 students

Four musicians, three duos, two couples in one evening of music! Satoko Fujii (piano) and her husband Natsuki Tamura (trumpet); Carla Kihlstedt (violin) and her husband Matthias Bossi (percussion); and Satoko and Carla, known as Minamo, all perform.

Photo Credit: Ryo Natsuki

George Varga called Minamo “high-wire improvisational duets that are risky, aesthetically challenging and frequently exhilarating.” “Fujii and Tamura’s sublime interactions and loquacious dialogue embodies near telepathy,” writes Troy Collins.

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. Just as her career spans international borders, her music spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical, rock, and traditional Japanese music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone. She has showcased her astonishing range and ability on over 50 CDs as leader or co-leader since 1996. "Unpredictable, wildly creative, and uncompromising,” writes All About Jazz. “Satoko Fujii is an absolutely essential listen for anyone interested in the future of jazz."

Japanese trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for his ability to blend a unique vocabulary of extended techniques with a touching lyricism. From breathtaking solo recitals and avant-rock sonic energy, to the folk-like beauty of his Gato Libre quartet, Tamura can conjure many moods. "Tamura's career has largely been about dissolving musical boundries," writes Dan McClenaghan.

photo credit: Peter Gannushkin

Though she came up in European classical music, violinist, singer, composer and improviser Carla Kihlstedt works in the margins of the known musical world. She has spent much of the last dozen years traveling in the U.S. and abroad playing in concert halls, rock clubs, and theaters, for rock, classical, and experimental audiences. Kihlstedt has worked closely with Tom Waits, Ben Goldberg, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and Fred Frith, and co-leads Tin Hat. She works extensively in the worlds of dance and theater.

A 2001 graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, percussionist, composer and actor Matthias Bossi is a veteran of the bands Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, The Book of Knots and Fred Frith’s Cosa Brava. "The most ambitious album of the year," writes Joel Dunham about The Book Of Knots' self-titled 2004 release. "Indie-rock finally has its Moby Dick, in all of its inscrutable, beautiful, mysterious, and cacophonous glory."