Pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, seem an unlikely couple to storm the citadel of jazz with challenging new sounds. Far from the typical black-clad, scowling and self-absorbed avant-garde artist, they are surprisingly casual -- the kind of people you immediately want to call by their first names.
Over the past five years, Fujii and Tamura have released a stunning series of recordings that have received vast critical acclaim, placing them consistently at the top of annual jazz polls both in Japan and the United States. They tour regularly, performing at the most prestigious venues and festivals devoted to cutting-edge jazz.
When they sat down recently to talk about their music in a Shinjuku coffee shop, they were chatty in a lazy, old-pair-of-jeans kind of way. The contrast with the ferocious onstage intensity of their eclectic musical approach could not have been stronger. Was this the new face of the avant-garde?
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