Natsuki Tamura/Satoko Fujii

Sylvie Courvoisier/Wadada Leo Smith
Angel Falls
Intakt Records CD 444

While improvised piano-trumpet duets go back to Louis Armstrong’s and Earl Hines’ “Weatherbird” of 1928, balancing the four valves and 88 keys is a delicate challenge. The 21^st century iterations here could be linked to abstract paintings. American trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s and Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier’s Angel Falls creates a subtle version of abstract expressionists’ splashes of color canvases, whereas Japanese, pianist Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura’s Ki is more like a monochrome painting which demands closer scrutiny to discern musical nuances

Courvoisier and Smith are experienced duo performers. Smith, whose career goes back to the late 1960s, has worked with pianists as different as John Tilbury and Vijay Iyer. Almost three decades younger, Courvoisier’s duet partners include Ned Rothenberg and Mark Feldman, but never a trumpeter until now. The two have been linked in large ensembles as part of Smith’s extensive catalogue though. Interestingly enough among those sessions was a quartet with Fujii and Tamura. Ki is the 10th duo the other two have recorded and while Tamura usually records with Fujii, on her own she has recorded duos with everyone from Otomo Yoshihide to Joe Fonda.

While also maintaining a painterly straight line, Courvoisier and Smith append numerous splashes of improvisational color as their disc evolves with extended techniques such as the pianist twanging the instrument’s inner strings and Smith creating brassy triplets, half valve slurs and protracted flutters. Occasionally as on “Sonic Utterance” light brass pitches and delicate formalist key glissandi are emphasized. But most tracks are rougher and more intense.

The title track for example evolves as additional reverb from string strums meet breezy brass slurps that slowly inflate to full force romanticism before energetically fragmenting into thinning trumpet squeaks and stinging keyboard clips. In contrast the probing aural brush strokes which shade “Line Through Time” extend short wavering brass bites and piano key probes that with gouache-like effects widen the line into full keyboard emphasis and smeared brass notes.

Reflecting and completing the overall design, the open horn brass portamento and thematic key-and-string decorations from Courvoisier on the final “Kairos” reflect similar sketching on the introductory “Olo’Upnea and Lightning”.

If jagged lightning define much of Angel Falls, then Ki is more of a light rain by a married couple. Minimalist in artistry, the simple musical geomatric shapes were drawn by Tamura, who composed seven of the eight tracks. The results  aren’t static however. Although overall Fujii’s touch is more serene and reflective than Courvoisier’s and Tamura’s solos are more fully rounded and horizontal than Smith’s, digressions include pointillist textures and half-valve squeaks from the trumpeter as well as dips into pedal point emphasis and jagged key slashes from the pianist.

Experience plus marriage means that tracks like “Kusunoki” include moderated antiphonic connections with every key stroke carefully outlined and portamento echoes combining into trumpet grace notes and restful piano comping. Other such as “Arakashi” and “Icho” reflect the dispassionate lyricism that moves with warm reverberating keyboard pumps and vibrating trumpet grace notes duets closer to delicate brush painting than abstract art’s scattershot washes. Yet even those tunes that emphasize widening keyboard sweeps and low pitch tremors plus wallowing immersive breaths encompass relaxed linear evolution.

Like broad visual art awareness, the individual and distinct ways each duo illustrated its program demands respect and recognition.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Angel: 1. Olo’Upnea and Lightning 2. Naomi Peak 3. Whispering Images 4. A Line Through Time 5. Vireo Bellii 6. Angel Falls 7. Sonic Utterance 8. Kairos

Personnel: Angel: Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) and Sylvie Courvoisier (piano)

Track Listing: Ki: 1. Keyaki 2. Sugi 3. Hinoki 4. Kusunoki 5. Arakashi 6. Icho 7. Kunugi 8. Dan’s Oceanside Listening Post

Personnel: Ki: Natsuki Tamura (trumpet) and Satoko Fujii (piano)