Dream Up is the debut album of American, New York-based, prolific drummer-percussionist Tomas Fujiwara’s Percussion Quartet and features a nine-movement suite, commissioned by Brooklyn’s performing arts and new music venue Roulette Intermedium and the New York State Council on the Arts. The album was recorded at Roulette Intermedium in January 2023.
Fujiwara, known as the bandleader of the 7 Poets Trio, Triple Double, and The Hook Up, his collaborative bands with guitarist Mary Halvorson, including with Thumbscrew and Illegal Crowns, and in Halvorson’s bands, as well as his duo with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, composed the suite and plays the drums. He was inspired to compose this suite by Max Roach’s iconic percussion ensemble M’Boom (Columbia, 1980) and his long run as a member of the Off-Broadway percussion group STOMP.
Fujiwara is joined by Tim Keiper (of Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of the Spirits and the psychedelic rock band MGMT) on traditional African percussion, Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese three different taiko drums and traditional flute, evoking Fujiwara’s childhood memories from trips to Japan, and vibes player Patricia Brennan.
This suite is an engaging celebration of storytelling, freedom, interaction, and rituals through the transformative power of rhythm. Fujiwara created a mysterious, cinematic suite that feels organic and sensual, without sounding folkloric or exotic. Fujiwara’s inclusive sonic vision allows the percussion quartet to play with intricate yet rich, odd-meter textures, blur the distinction between the ancient and the modern, and suggest an exciting, peaceful, and compassionate new rhythmic ecosystem. It ends with the touching, dreamy ballad «You Don’t Have to Try». led by Brennan and thoughtfully layered by Fujiwara, Keiper, and Watanabe.
Eyal Hareuveni
Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Tim Keiper (donso ngoni, kamale ngoni, calabash, temple blocks, timbale, djembe, castanets, balafon, found objects, percussion), Kaoru Watanabe (o-jimedaiko, uchiwadaiko, shimedaiko, shinobue), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone)
