Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March

  Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double is the ingenious name of Fujiwara’s double trio, with the unusual line up of two drummers (Fujiwara, doubling vibraphone, and Gerald Cleaver), a pair of electric guitarists (Brandon Seabrook and frequent Fujiwara collaborator Mary Halvorson), and two brass players (Ralph Alessi on trumpet and Taylor Ho Bynum on cornet, another of Fujiwara’s regular bandmates). The group’s second release is March, recorded in December 2019. Fujiwara’s pungent compositions engender passages of wild discord and chaotic beauty arising from the boundless improvisations of his co-conspirators. Without much of a template for this particular instrumentation, Fujiwara was liberated to create his own strategies. He notes that he “really wanted to hone in on the subtle shifts that can happen with the addition and subtraction of different musicians in the ensemble.” The song title Docile Fury Ballad hints at the contradictory feelings that Fujiwara consistently invokes. Largely eschewing long solos in favor of brief outbursts of sound, the emphasis throughout most of the program is on spirited collective improvisations. Pack Up, Coming For You starts the fun with a piece that starts out simply enough but grows in complexity and allure as it develops. Life Only Gets More skitters along at first with a friendly groove before breaking down into a quiet space, like coming across an unexpected clearing during a walk in the forest. The powerful Wave Shake and Angle Bounce is one of the disc’s real highlights, displaying an amazing sense of urgent propulsion and detailed interaction. A robust and cheerfully deranged guitar solo (by Seabrook, I think) takes over in the middle for a spell. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to know what to pay attention to at any given moment. And like many of Fujiwara’s pieces, it ends when you least expect it. I’m also enchanted by The March of the Storm Before the Quiet of the Dance, which evolves from a vaguely melancholy opening section into a complicated groove with squealing guitars fueled by the twin drumming of Fujiwara and Cleaver. Everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown into Docile Fury Ballad, which fuses trumpet pyrotechnics, casual guitar chords, an ever-quickening pace and a lot more into a potent example of the group’s many possible angles of attack. The atmospheric Silhouettes in Smoke follows, opening with a thumping beat and prominent guitars before falling back into another of Fujiwara’s quiet open zones where anything can happen as the music moves forward. Here it’s a trumpet/cornet duet against Fujiwara’s delicate vibes and low-ley drumming by Cleaver, leading to the closing section with the guitars. Closing the program is For Alan, Part II, a hypnotic and improvised drum duet, an extended tribute to the great Boston-area drummer Alan Dawson, who Fujiwara studied with as a child. March is highly recommended. 

Firehouse 12 FH12-04-01-035; Ralph Alessi (tpt) Taylor Ho Bynum (cnt) Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook (g) Tomas Fujiwara (d, vib) Gerald Cleaver (d); New Haven, CT, December 10-11, 2019; Pack Up, Coming For You/ Life Only Gets More/ Wave Shake and Angle Bounce/ The March of the Storm Before the Quiet of the Dance/ Docile Fury Ballad/ Silhouettes in Smoke/ For Alan, Part II; 53:21. firehouse12records.com