Breathe

A toast to the breath of life
Friday, September 28, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

If you're a saxophonist, the last thing you want to run out of is air. A powerful line might come out breathy, weak or worse -- you might make no sound at all.

[left: Saco Yasuma, courtesy of corneliastreetcafe.net]

Japanese saxophonist Saco Yasuma had trouble mustering the breath 18 years ago, when she began studying her art. But now, thanks to a set of breathing exercises she's been using for the past three years, her music has a new energy.

"I know how important air is to me," she said.

Most people would celebrate their good health and move on. But Yasuma decided to compose a tribute to that substance that gave both her and her music life. Her "Air Suite" debuts Saturday at the Brecht Forum on the west bank of Manhattan.

"Air makes you feel really good, but you don't feel the air all the time," she explained. "For example, when we go to the beach, or we go to a mountain, or go to another country, or the season changes -- you feel the air change. That really inspires you to go in a new direction."

Although she works mostly with Synergy, a free jazz group that prizes improvisation over structure, Yasuma returned to some of her childhood classical music roots with the suite, scripting most of it tightly with counterpoint. But as a composer, she doesn't limit herself to genre boundaries.

"I've listened to music from different places and eras," she said. "In my mind, it is all mixed together. There is no genre in my system.

"Music is one," she added.

In fact, she sees all the arts as a continuous whole. Yasuma, who has worked with visual artists and poets on other projects, brings in dancer Amon Bey to show the movement of air during her band's performance of "Air Suite."

"When I was writing the music, I made drawings in the margins," she said. "Then I went back and realized that there were some images in my mind of movement. I realized that I should show the interplay between the dance and music.

"Usually when we use more than two instruments, that interplay happens," she explained. So adding the element of dance will be nothing new.

In fact, Amon Bey is the son of her longtime artistic partner, Amir Bey, who makes masks and costumes for Synergy. "Air Suite" is the second generation of Yasuma's musical experimentation.

"Music is really fun, but I'm looking forward to do more collaboration with other kinds of art," she said. "I want to expand my imagination."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.