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Kaze: Sandstorm
by John Sharpe
French-Japanese cooperative Kaze continues to thrive on Sandstorm, its fifth release. This time out, the enduring line-up of pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost, and drummer Peter Orins, is supplemented by New York-based electronic artist Ikue Mori, on a program of seven cuts from a NYC studio session in February 2020. While previous albums have either presented charts from across the band or off-the-map explorations, here they combine both. Three short collectives separate four longer ...
read moreKaze: Atody Man
by Jerome Wilson
The second offering in Satoko Fujii's 60th birthday CD-a-month marathon is by her long time quartet, Kaze. The group's instrumentation of two trumpets, piano and drums would lead you to think it's heavily experimental and abstract, but while those elements are present, there is, on Atody Man, always a sense of order to this music with even the thorniest passages always resolving into logical ends. One piece, Morning Glow," is one of Fujii's prettier compositions. It starts with ...
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by Karl Ackermann
Atody Man is the fifth album from the quartet Kaze. Beginning with Rafale (Circum-Libra, 2011), the group--initiated by French drummer Peter Orins--has been one of many showcases for the eclectic music of pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. The unusual formation includes a second trumpeter, Christian Pruvost, also from France. Atody Man also marks the second entry in Fujii's sixtieth birthday project, with a planned monthly-release throughout the year. The Atody" part of the album title comes ...
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by Dan McClenaghan
What was it drummer Art Blakey said about surviving in the tough, competitive business of being a jazz musician? Something along the lines of: You're either busy appearing or you're busy disappearing." There might be something to this. Artists who release a recording every three or four years, or who tour sporadically, face the possibility of fading off and disappearing. Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii is definitely appearing. She has tagged the year 2018--when she turns sixty years of ...
read moreKaze: Uminari
by John Sharpe
The prolific husband and wife team of pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura has found yet another fertile vehicle in Kaze. French drummer Peter Orins and trumpeter Christian Pruvost combines with the Japanese pair In an unusual instrumentation. On their third offering Uminari the combo stretches the boundaries even more than on previous outings, and not only in terms of time (clocking in at over 70 minutes). However the session retains the positive attributes of its predecessors: blistering excitement, ...
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by Budd Kopman
Uminari is the third release, following Rafaele and Tornado, from the cooperative quartet Kaze, made up of pianist Satoko Fujii, the dual trumpets of Christian Pruvost and Natsuki Tamura and drummer Peter Orins. While the quartet's configuration is unusual, it is also different from Fujii's viewpoint in that she is not the leader, but rather one of four equal participants, allowing her to relax a bit more than usual. The first thing that must be said is that ...
read moreCarlo Aonzo - Katsumi Nagaoka: Kaze
by AAJ Italy Staff
Curioso lavoro per una coppia di strumenti che non è facile veder lavorare assieme senza altri accompagnatori, questo CD vede protagonisti il mandolinista savonese Carlo Aonzo (del quale ci siamo in passato occupati per le sue collaborazioni con Beppe Gambetta, in particolare per il CD Traversata) e il chitarrista giapponese (ma ormai residente a Genova) Katsumi Nagaoka. Il repertorio è un mix di arrangiamenti di brani tratti ora dalla tradizione classica, ora da quella popolare, che costituiscono il riferimento anche ...
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