Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up - After All Is Said (2015)

After All is Said is the third album from Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up, featuring Michael Formanek on bass, Mary Halvorson on guitar, Brian Settles on tenor saxophone and flute, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet and the leader/composer on drums. Formed in 2008, The Hook Up has grown together and developed a personal voice that highlights their individualism as well as a collective commitment to the sound as a whole composition. In describing the band, Jim Macnie of The Village Voice writes, The drummer has named his latest band appropriately. Ensembles can go anywhere if the intra-group chemistry is cooking...Fujiwara sounds like he's got his mates on speed dial. The group s first album, Actionspeak (2010), was named one of the best debuts of 2010 by the New York City Jazz Record and given four stars in Downbeat Magazine. The follow-up, The Air is Different (2012), was described as multi-directional, polyrhythmic, and urgent...a great record and marvelous band (Point of Departure) and perceptive and agile...it nails the productive tension of free improvisation against a sturdy frame (The New York Times). After All is Said, recorded in February 2014, adds the acclaimed bassist Michael Formanek to the group, and expands its instrumental palette with Brian Settles playing flute for the first time on a Hook Up recording. The new album continues to emphasize the bandleader s nuanced arrangements while honoring the rich dynamics of these highly acclaimed and virtuosic soloists. As in his previous work, Fujiwara draws inspiration from lineage and ancestry, both artistic and familial.