CANADA: June 20: French-Japanese quartet Kaze in Montreal

French-Japanese Quartet Kaze brings “musically dynamic and intense” music to Montreal on Tuesday, June 20 

The concert – featuring Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Christian Pruvost and Peter Orins –  is part of a 10-day North American tour that includes performances in Hamilton, Chicago, New York City, Berkeley, LA, and Vancouver

“...the rarely heard sound of two trumpets collaborating, interweaving and cross-talking is at the center of the group Kaze, whose penultimate set of the festival was also one of the high points of the overall program.”

– Josef Woodard, DownBeat

“… one of the most musically dynamic and intense "jazz" sets of the year… If you think you can imagine what piano, drums, and two trumpets will sound like, think again.” — Derk Richardson, KPFA

“One of the best gigs I’ve seen this year….” – Steve Dalachinsky, The Brooklyn Rail

The renowned international quartet Kaze bring their “intense and playful” music to La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent, Montreal on Tuesday, June 20. The concert presented by Suoni per il Popolo begins at 8 p.m. Also performing will be Gordon Grdina’s Haram. Tickets $13-$15. For information visit https://www.lfttckt.com/tickets/lfttkt-casa-1491507730-19918. The performance is part of  Kaze’s 10-day North American tour, which includes performances in Ontario, Chicago, New York City, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Vancouver.

Melodic, abstract, mysterious, beautiful, and confrontational, Kaze plays free jazz at its most creative and powerful. The members of this international quartet – pianist Fujii, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost, and drummer Pete Orins – share an insatiable appetite for sonic experimentation, boundless energy and enthusiasm, and the disciplined intelligence of accomplished spontaneous composers.

The group has released three acclaimed recordings - 2011’s Rafale, 2013’s Tornado, and the May 2015 release Uminari which the London Jazz News calls “...bold, uncompromising music."  The band expanded to create Trouble Kaze which adds a second pianist and drummer on their March 2017 debut June. The recording earned 4-stars in All About Jazz which called it “an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Orins and Pruvost are the pillars of Muzzix, a collective based in Lille and comprised of about 30 musicians. Recently, as members of Muzzix, they collaborated with another French collective called Dedalus to record Moondog (aka Louis Hardin): Round the World of Sound (New World Records), a work dedicated to the maverick composer.

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. In concert and on 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz, contemporary classical, avant-rock and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. She has also established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.” Her ultimate goal: “I would love to make music that no one has heard before.”

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for his ability to blend a unique vocabulary of extended techniques with touching jazz lyricism. Since 2005, Tamura has focused on the intersection of European folk music and sound abstraction with Gato Libre, a group now featuring Tamura, Fujii on accordion and Yasuko Kaneko on trombone. In 2006 he co-founded the collaborative trio Junk Box with Fujii and drummer John  Hollenbeck.

http://www.satokofujii.com/projects.Kaze.html