For his Roulette/NYSCA Commission, drummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara premieres “Dream Up,” a suite for percussion quartet, featuring vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, taiko drummer Kaoru Watanabe, percussionist Tim Keiper, and Fujiwara on drums.
“Dream Up” draws inspiration from Tomas’ years as a performer in Stomp, and as a member of multi-percussion ensembles such as his own Triple Double, 7 Poets Trio, and Shizuko, Mike Reed’s Living By Lanterns, and the Broadway show “Fela”. The suite is a celebration of storytelling, history, memory, and culture through the transformative power of rhythm.
Described as “a ubiquitous presence in the New York scene…an artist whose urbane writing is equal to his impressively nuanced drumming” (Point of Departure), Brooklyn-based Tomas Fujiwara is an active player in some of the most exciting music of the current moment. He leads the bands Triple Double, 7 Poets Trio, and Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up; is a member of the collective trio Thumbscrew (with Mary Halvorson and Michael Formanek); has a collaborative duo with Taylor Ho Bynum; and engages in a diversity of creative work with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Matana Roberts, Taylor Ho Bynum, Amir ElSaffar, Benoit Delbecq, Adam O’Farrill and many others. In 2021, he won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Drummer, and premiered two suites of new music as part of his Roulette Residency: “You Don’t Have to Try” (with Meshell Ndegeocello) and “Shizuko.”
“Drummer Tomas Fujiwara works with rhythm as a pliable substance, solid but ever shifting. His style is forward- driving but rarely blunt or aggressive, and never random. He has a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint…A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”
—The New York Times
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
