Kazutoki Umezu's music draws on eclectic sources from around the globe and mixes them into a beguiling brew. Avoiding the high-art pretense of many postmodern mix-masters, Umezu always grounds his sound in a high-energy sense of fun. Even when zipping between klezmer, Mongolian folk songs, progressive rock and avant-garde jazz, he never gets lost, steering his various groups with a delicate sense of direction, even when the music gets wild.
To encompass such wide-ranging tastes, one night is simply not enough. So once a year or so, he takes over the Shinjuku Pit Inn for a week and orchestrates his own musical carnival with surprisingly diverse groups each night. Umezu's sharp ear for different musicians was honed in collaborations with downtown New York avant-garde jazz heavies and boundary criss-crossers like Marc Ribot and John Zorn, and the fluctuating cast here is an intriguing slice of Tokyo's musical scene. Everyone shows up to revel in their own variety and merge styles under his impish leadership. The six nights roam from trios, quintets and septets to a klezmer group on the 26th and the hard-edged jazz/prog rock of the Kiki band on the 28th. Though multifaceted musicians all too often lose focus, especially over a shifting week of shows, Umezu always keeps his groups funky, polished and highly spontaneous.
