Fruezinho 2024. Mulatu Astatke, Juana Molina, Masakatsu Takagi and Yuta Orisaka at Tachikawa Stage Garden, July 6th 2024

 

Festival de Frue has taken place at Shizuoka every November for the past six, seven years. Unlike most other festivals, this one explores the fringes of experimentalism and World Music. They’re outside the mainstream, true; but their lineup throughout the years has included some truly legendary heavy hitters. Headliners have included people like Tom Ze, Hermeto Pascoal, Terry Riley, The Master Musicians of Joujouka, among others. They also have been looking ahead and have invited some of the most interesting boundary pushers from the current scene. Names like Billy Woods, Angel Bat Dawid, Tim Bernardes and Carlos Niño. I haven’t had the chance to do the pilgrimage there, but one day I would love to

More accessible in term of location is, in my case, the offshoot that takes place every July in Tokyo, Fruezinho. This year was the third edition and my first time there. Once the announcement was made that Mulatu Astatke was going to headline, I didn’t have to wait to find out who else was playing, I knew I needed to be there. It’s funny because the announcement was made like a couple of days after I wrote in my post covering the Mr. Bungle concert about how I discovered both Fantomas and Mulatu thanks to a colleague of mine more than twenty years ago.

On the day of the concert I arrived at the venue in Tachikawa, the west side of town where I live, around one o’clock. I skipped the opening artist, a band named Happy (I didn’t know anything about that band, but with a name like that I didn’t feel like I wanted to know either, I’m sorry). It was a hot day, starting to get overcast, but luckily the show was indoors, at a really good venue that opened around the time the pandemic started. The blocks of seats upfront were all tied up, people couldn’t sit on those, but you could recline and that’s what I did. Found a spot at front row and chilled there for the next eight hours, except for a brief break I took to grab lunch at the Ikea next door, the lines for the food stalls at the festival were huge, so forget that.

The first act I caught was one I was looking forward to see. A couple of years ago I listened a Yuta Orisaka album that placed pretty high on the rateyourmusic annual ranking and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was expecting that sort of chill Shintaro Sakamoto vibe, but this was different. At first, the band that included an acoustic double bass and a saxophone player, reminded me of Sting’s first couple of albums, when he had Branford Marsalis in the band. Then the sound evolved to lengthy jams that took us on a psychedelic journey that was to me unexpected. They can play and rock out too. His voice, especially in the folky tunes, sounded to me kind of like Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes, who’s one of my favorite singers. The show was a memorable one and a proper headlining one as well, They were on stage for an hour and a half, but it was always engaging and gratifying in its left turns and experimentation.

After my lunch break I made it on time for the next performer. Masakatsu Takagi was not a name I was familiar with it, I read that he composed the soundtracks for a few of Mamoru Hosoda animated films. He’s mostly an ambient artist and him at the piano, solo, was the perfect segue from the previous intense act. I mentioned that the day was overcast, well, actually during Takagi’s set a huge thunderstorm broke out and since the back of the venue was fully, with the food area being outside, we could hear the storm contrasting with the delicate piano tunes coming from the stage. It was kind of magical, a nice moment.

 

It was then time for an act I was not particularly excited for. I’m Latin and hate to knock on someone from Latin America, but Juana Molina, who’s been on my radar since she released Segundo back in 2000, has never been someone I’ve been on a rush to catch live. Two things have kept me at distance, her voice and her quirkiness. In Japan quirk is king, though. This proclivity has helped even more the guest artist she brought to join her for a couple of tunes, saxophone player Sam Gendel. I was surprised to see that there were quite a few people wearing Sam Gendel merch, I didn’t even know that such things could exist, I’m talking about the merch, t-shirts and whatnot. His association with Louis Cole probably has helped. Louis Cole is king in Japan. If you think who’s the current most iconic Indie artist (Sufjan Steven, maybe?) That’s who he is here. Personally I think he’s OK and don’t get me wrong, I love humor in music, from Funkadelic to Talking Heads, but to me Cole is not funny, he’s just too… can I say it?… white. But I digress. I didn’t dislike Juana Molina’s set, especially when it was just her and her drummer. She’s now adding some tasty reggaeton influenced beats to her repertoire too. It was an enjoyable set.

 

Frue knocked it out of the park booking Mulatu Astatke to close this festival. I mean, that’s a true legend. Just seeing the tech crew laying down all those instruments on stage was exciting. I’m being honest, I was mesmerized seeing that stage filled with instruments in anticipation to the legend to walk in. That happened around 19:20 when the music director of the 8-piece band introduced him. He came out wearing a really colorful and cool looking shirt. The audience went wild. Took his place behind the vibraphone, the groove started and didn’t end for the next hour and forty minutes. This atmospheric intro set up the vibes with Mr Astatke soloing, then a Sun Ra big band type of extended blast smoothly segued to the start of Dewel, that then settled on that tasty bass organ groove with the melodic lines played by the trumpet and saxophone. It was literally heaven. We then got Yekermo Sew an adaptation, not a cover, of Horace Silver’s Song for my Father, that became better known when Jim Jarmusch used it prominently in his movie Broken Flowers. Another tune used in the same fashion on that movie was Yegelle Tezeta that had Astatke bopping to it from behind his Fender Rhodes in more of a conductor role, while solos went on from the incredible musicians that joined him on stage. To me that tune is easily in the running for funkiest tune of all time, easily. To hear it live was truly a dream come true. After that we had the song named after him that opens the album Mulatu of Ethiopia, Mulatu. This live version was kind of fused with Chifara the closer from that album, it had that Latin bass line throughout. It was unbelievable and it closed the main set before the musicians returned to the stage for another song that’s a whole other level of funkiness. That was Yekatit, the encore tune that closed the party. After that all jaws were on deck, I mean on the floor.

It’s funny because during their time on stage you could tell that there was something bothering Mr. Astatke. At one point he even went backstage for a few minutes. I’m familiar with black old people, crankiness is not unusual. But I didn’t see any mention of the show on their social media sites, unlike some of their other tour stops. Perhaps they didn’t enjoy it? I said it’s funny because it goes to show that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, if that’s the case. Me, personally, and I’m sure the vast majority of the people in attendance as a well, had a blast. Thank you Frue, keep it classy, fun and original, like that lovely stage design you put up. One suggestion, if I may, for next year's headliner: Patrice Rushen. That would be epic! Hopefully I’ll be there again next year.
 
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