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CD
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ROG 149CD
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"The title of this album was suggested by Satoko Fujii. It's a Japanese word meaning a heart-to-heart conversation between intimate friends (what a lovely thing to have a word for! She chose it, 'because when I play with Myra, I always feel like I am having a conversation with my close friend.' Clearly Melford feels the same way. It's rare to hear music in which both participants are so present in the moment and where the deepest truths of the heart are revealed so openly. Melford and Fujii share a history together that is longer than their recordings might indicate. Katarahi is just their second album as a duo. Fujii was a student at New England Conservatory studying with Paul Bley in 1994 when he introduced her to Melford at a Melford solo concert in Boston. They have maintained a friendship over the years since then. Their desire to play together finally became a reality in January 2007 when Fujii arranged a duo concert while Melford was visiting a friend in Tokyo. A second concert at Maybeck recital hall in Berkeley, Calif., followed in September of that year. Since then, despite the comparatively few concert venues with two pianos available, Fujii says, 'I think we played together twice or three times in Japan, twice in America, twice in Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Austria. I guess we have a history!' The entire album, recorded live at the 2024 Jazz Festival Leibnitz, could be described as a deep, and especially beautiful, musical conversation. It is also something more. It's customary on duet recordings to mention who is playing on the right channel and who on the left in order to help identify who plays what. However, Fujii and Melford don't want that mentioned. First of all, they switched pianos (that is sides) during the concert, so it would be cumbersome to note. More importantly, the responsibility for creating the music is so mutual that noting individual contributions is almost beside the point--the sum is so much greater than the parts."
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