One of the common impressions of Japanese jazz is of skilled technicians working studiously within the confines of jazz tradition to turn out polished music. Indeed, many Japanese jazz musicians fail to exploit the full potential of jazz improvisation, preferring instead to remain dedicated, humble craftsmen, honing their skills and leaving the boundaries right where they found them. Two new quintets -- the Shigeo Aramaki Group and the Hiroshi Fukumura Quintet -- delightfully smash this stereotype into smithereens. Both groups have a brash, open and unrestrained approach that follows the spirit of jazz more than the letter.
These two groups, both formed within the past year, are comprised of well-established musicians. The members of each quintet lead their own individual groups and have made their own recordings, but the particular collective spirit they embrace when together is special. Both Aramaki and Fukumura know how to create open, flexible structures in which the different individual styles amplify the strengths of the others with creative tension. All too often, the members of a jazz group have to submerge their identities to the leader's demands, but in these groups, the leaders construct a rough agenda for each piece and let the musicians take the songs apart in their own way. The resulting interplay brings out an exuberant openness and unaffected roughness that is unusual in Tokyo's jazz scene.
The roots of Fukumura's group have been growing for 30-some years. Fukumura played trombone with pianist Fumio Itabashi's group before attending the New England Conservatory in 1974. He studied under the sway of free jazz, popular at the time with musicians and teachers such as Jaki Byard. Returning to Japan, though, Fukumura found himself playing standards and fusion. Still, neither direction was time wasted. For Fukumura, balance is important. "If it's only free, it's too much," he said. "I want to play standards, but freely. The romantic element is still necessary."