Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura: Aloft

Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura: Aloft

By Mike Jurkovic
July 20, 2024
View read count

Feel air move around you throughout the forty-nine or so minutes of Aloft, the latest entry into the ever-compelling soundtrack of

Satoko Fujii

piano
b.1958

" data-original-title="" title="">Satoko Fujii and

" data-original-title="" title="">Natsuki Tamura's creative coexistence. It ripples like a pond while it roars like the sea. It rafts the updraft and dives in for the kill. It is life in a nutshell: an epic tale of joy a lifetime long. But to hear it revealed in this way—piano, trumpet, lionhearted—is both a privilege and an honor.

Maybe it has been said a hundred million times before that the essence of haiku permeates the music of

Satoko Fujii

piano
b.1958

" data-original-title="" title="">Satoko Fujii and

Natsuki Tamura

trumpet
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Natsuki Tamura, or by slim chance this is the first time, but it is the truth so it bears repetition. No matter how much of the couple's music those listening have previously absorbed—their first revelation: How Many (Libra Records, 1997); their sublime third In Krakow In November (Libra Records, 2001); or 2020's crystalline Mantle (Not Two Records)—the music, its telepathy, its topic of discussion, its slang, its metaphors hold an unseen power uniquely and singularly their own.

For example: "Lifting," a gravity-less meditation on the very idea of gravity itself. What holds us? What binds us? What bars our passage from one understanding to the next? It evolves with its bold determination. Its own clarifying intuition. "On the Flyway," perhaps the beating heart of Aloft, its ease, beauty, and temperament could serve as a highlight in anyone's experience of being here, then, or now. An instant treatise and testament, Aloft gathers power and energy from within and then freely releases it. A gift not often bequeathed.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Migration; Wintering; Traveling Bird; Lifting; On The Flyway; Waiting For Dawn.

Personnel

Natsuki Tamura

trumpet

Satoko Fujii

piano

Album information

Title: Aloft | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Libra Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

A Few of My Favorite 2024 Jazz Thing...
< Previous

Joe Darro: The Quintessence of Las V...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.