At 9:48 AM -0700 5/23/2002, Patrice L. Roussel wrote:
But Ken, we know that you don't really like rock drummers :-).
I saw the band in Portland and the fact that the drummer was not a regular jazz/improv drummer is what made the show different (and prevented me from falling asleep since I find regular jazz/improv quartets more and more predictable).
Now I am willing to accept that in this contect the lyrical side of Satoko was lost. But this project has a different objective than your usual jazz/improv quartet, no? If she hired Yoshida, it was not to get Elvin or Joey behind the kit.
Patrice.
I was at the same show in Portland as Patrice, in fact, I ran sound for it. It was a challenge, because Yoshida plays at a volume that is difficult for the venue they used, but I really enjoyed his contributions. I'm glad that he made no attempt to play "jazz", he just played in his normal style, and I felt it really worked in that group. I could certainly see Fujii in a more conventional setting, and intend to check out some of her other recordings. Fujii seemed to really enjoy this band, she mentioned several times how much fun it was to play with Yoshida. The bassist was excellent also! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Trenkel New and Improv Music http://www.newandimprov.com improv@peak.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------