While it is possible that trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii could equal the 47-year partnership of Duke Ellington and Harry Carney, the lofty realms of 53 years shared by Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink are most likely out of reach. But, the Japanese performance and life-partners have a pretty solid lock on the number three spot with 33 years together and over 100 shared album credits, whether in each other's groups, shared projects or as co-sidepersons.
The latest finds them distilled down to their essence as a duo. Aloft was recorded at the end of 2023 when Fujii and Tamura were in New York for gigs with Ikue Mori and came after a duo set in Philadelphia. While the jazz truism is that touring helps focus time in the studio, by now the pair need no such stimulus, knowing what the other is thinking in that mystical relationship telepathy yet still seizing upon moments of surprise and discovery. They embody the two geese captured walking in lockstep on the cover.
While the album title and the track names also reference birds, the temptation to hear the music through some sort of Audubonistic prism can be resisted. What is irresistible, however, is the playfulness the duo create in the moment, whether it be tinged with grandeur, fantasy, bombast or something extraterrestrial. Tamura's facility with extended techniques, Fujii's preparations and the inclusion of percussion widens the palette while whetting the palate.
While the pieces mostly run in the eight- to ten-minute range, allowing for wondrous motivic development, the album highlight is the shortest tune, "Traveling Bird", almost primeval in its gestures and bursts, evoking a different kind of a flight, a cancelled human one.
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