Fe: Live at Virtuoso

Apr 06, 2025

The 2021 album Live at Virtuoso by the quartet Fe was released by the jazz club Virtuoso in the nightlife district of Akasaka in Tokyo, Japan. It’s a great name for a music venue. Aside from the word being a term for master musicians, fans of jazz guitar will immediately recognize the reference to jazz guitarist Joe Pass’s landmark series of Virtuoso albums. Naturally, Virtuoso features jazz guitar and guitar bands on many nights. The jazz club also occasionally releases albums such as this one on its in-house recording label.

This album was recorded at Virtuoso on the night of October 1, 2020. Fe is made up of guitarist Yuta Ikedo on guitar, Ko Omura on drums, Keisuke Furuki on bass, and Shinobu Ishizaki on saxophone. Guitarist Ikedo and drummer Omura are co-leaders of this group and also two-thirds of a different trio called “Atman”. These two musicians have a long history of playing together with a friendly and close relationship that can be summed up by the quartet’s name, “Fe”, which originated from a humorous accident. As Ikedo was typing up some information about the group, the intended “ds” (for drums) became “fe” due to quick fingers and an incorrect alignment on the keyboard. The typo amused the group and stuck as the trio’s name. Omura’s liner notes also playful improvise on “f” and “e”:

Fundamental elements are forever evolving, foreseeing equal fractals extracted from each feasible experience.
Furthermore, eloquence is finite, enveloping filtered eons fabricated eternally or forever.
Finding existence fatigues energy, feeling exhalation for ectstastic flow.
For each face, ephemeral factors exists, forever engaging fond experiences.

The songs on Live at Asakusa are original compositions by co-leaders Ikedo and Omura, with Ikedo contributing five songs and Omura two. Along with their individual solos, Fe’s music also features guitar and sax pairing up on some melody lines. It’s a doubled jazz sound that works so well in a live setting with the attention-grabbing duality of the sharp blade of Ishizaki’s sax and the warm glow of Ikedo’s guitar. Some of the improvisational highlights also feature Ikedo and saxophonist Ishizaki trading ideas and solos back and forth in ad-libbed, engaging conversations.

#1 “Invisible Essence” (Ikedo) is energetic and bright (the audio for this track is available in the live recorded video included below). #2 “Flow of the Circumference” (Ikedo) leans towards a lush fusion sound through an adventurous circuit. #3 “Sheepwash” (Omura) is comfortably warm, memorable, and unique. #4 “Flux” (Ikedo) has irresistible angles with openness and a drum solo by Omura over a final vamp. #5 “Ebb and Flow” (Omura) sways sweetly like a hammock nap on a ship at sea before threatening waves appear with Ishizaki’s roiling sax. The subtle asymmetry of #6 “GMM” (Ikedo) constructs a fascinating portrait dedicated to Ikedo’s grandmother Misao-san and serves as the perfect magnum opus of the album, along with the initially placid but increasingly intense scenes of #7 “Irreversible” (Ikedo), a song inspired by the harrowing Gaspar Noé movie.