GATO LIBRE
Genres: Post-Fusion Contemporary, 21st Century Modern • Japan

Natsuki Tamura – trumpet Satoko Fujii – accordion Kazuhiko Tsumura – guitar Norikatsu Koreyasu – bass Natsuki Tamura’s fascinating Spanish-inflected quartet is a real treat of exotic musical blending and creative musicianship. While these musicians all play all over Tokyo, this quartet’s home base is the pleasant Otoya-Kintoki, an intimate space that fits the music perfectly, sonically and atmospherically. This is a quartet that you want to hear up close, and while the club is not small, you have a sense of intimacy here that welcomes you into the delicate, lovely immediacy of the music. Each evening Gato Libre, whose name means roughly “free cat” in Spanish, plays, they try out new tunes, written by leader Tamura. As a result, few of them have real titles, and Tamura calls them out, “Ma,” “Mi,” “Ya,” “Sa,” “Shi,” and “Su,” which gives them a very abstract and undefined quality. The tunes will surely be titled later, once read more...