Rougequeue is a 2015 mini-album from pianist Fumie Chiba that features five of her original songs, three with jazz combos (septet, sextet, and trio), and two solo piano tracks. The uncommon word used for the album title is a French word for redstart, a small, colorful bird with a reddish-orange tail. Once the title is parsed and read as roozh-kew, it becomes easier to see and hear, but it maintains its aura of mystery and beauty. Even the word’s letters themselves seem to align, dip, and extend with a certain intentional pattern. The bird image and concepts are also easily applied to the five compositions contained under that title, music that is wonderfully vivid and that can take flight.

The five songs maintain that mystery and beauty with light, neatly arrayed piano trio frameworks filled out with painted backgrounds via orchestration of the trumpet, saxes, and guitar on the two septet/sextet tracks.

The title track “Rougequeue” opens with a crystal edge and rich use of the seven instruments for color and texture. The piano trio takes over on track #2 “Ringlight”, a dramatically swinging waltz that was a semifinalist in Japan’s 2014 International Songwriting Competition.

Chiba plays solo piano on track #3 “Orange Sky”, playing the piano with melodic tension and timing as if pulling the strings of a marionette to create life and feelings from wood and strings. Here as with other of Chiba’s compositions, the balanced mixture of pop, jazz, classical, and Japanese folk charm invokes captivating images.

Track #4 “Backstroke” is a six-member piece with characteristically modern, progressive jazz elements like a Herbie Hancock/Wayne Shorter outfit. A foreboding pedal note and vamp motif underpin slow-moving arrows of melody, leading to exciting sax and piano solos and a funky interlude with a guitar solo.

Chiba returns to solo piano for #5 “Water Flower” (ending with a solo piano piece is a pleasing tradition with this pianist’s albums). This song, in medium tempo in 5/4 time, approaches the jazz/classical piano boundary with minor tones, low notes, and emotional heft. With its slowly expressive melody over busier left-hand terrain, the album closes in a melancholic mood and evokes empathetic resonance on the wings of Chiba’s inspiration.

Rougequeue by Fumie Chiba

• Fumie Chiba - piano
• Koji Tetsui - bass on #1, 2, 4
• Kaoru Suzuki - drums on #1, 2, 4
• Mitsuru Tanaka - trumpet, horn on #1, 4
• Shunosuke Ishikawa - tenor sax on #1, 4
• Nao Teraya - guitar on #1, 4
• Hirokazu Ishida - soprano sax on #1

Released in 2015 on Usagi Record as UR-001.

Japanese names: 千葉史絵 Chiba Fumie 鉄井孝司 Tetsui Koji 鈴木郁 Suzuki Kaoru 田中充 Tanaka Mitsuru 石川周之介 Ishikawa Shunosuke 寺屋ナオ Teraya Nao 石田寛和 Ishida Hirokazu

Audio and Video

• Audio for “Rougequeue”, track #1 on this album:

• Live quartet version of “Backstroke” from 2014, track #4 on this album:

• Full playlist for this album
• Audio samples of #1 “Rougequeue” and #4 “Backstroke”
• Excerpt from track #2: “ringlight”

Jazz of Japan #276 • Nov 15, 2024 • Brian McCrory

Related albums: Tip of Dream (2009), Beautiful Days (2017), Canvas (2022)