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Futari (Satoko Fujii / Taiko Saito): Beyond
by Mark Corroto
Futari is the duo of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito. It is a Japanese word translated into English as 'two persons.' Both persons are world travelers, adept at navigating beyond their own Japanese culture. Fujii has been at it for years, studying in Boston in the 1980s and her releasing her first recording with mentor Paul Bley, Something About Water (Libra Records) in 1996. With time spent in the US and Europe, Fujii's discography is immense, recording solo, ...
Continue ReadingFutari (Satoko Fujii / Taiko Saito): Beyond
by Dan McClenaghan
Satoko Fujii has found a new sound. The prolific and always adventurous pianist-composer teams with vibraphonist Taiko Saito--tagging their duo Futari--for a beautifully surreal journey called Beyond. “Futari" means 'two people" in Japanese. The two people involved connected in the early 2000s, in Berlin, when Saito was a student at the Berlin University of the Arts. A friendship strengthened when Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, moved to Berlin in 2011, settling under the vibraphonist's wings in ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii / Ramon Lopez / Natsuki Tamura: Mantle
by John Sharpe
Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii rarely stands still. When she and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez toured Japan in 2019 on the back of their duo album Confluence (Libra, 2019), they took the opportunity to add Fujii's partner trumpeter Natsuki Tamura to the line up. To make things fresher still, they set themselves a challenge: to each write a new piece for the trio every day. Mantle, recorded in the studio the day after the tour concluded, collects their favorite numbers, three ...
Continue ReadingNatsuki Tamura, Satoko Fujii and Ramon Lopez: Mantle
by Troy Dostert
Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii have made so many records together that it seems impossible to keep track of them all. Partners in life and in music, they have collaborated on everything from duo recordings to Fujii's large-scale orchestras. In 2020 alone, their Kaze quartet released Sandstorm (Circum-Disc) featuring electronics specialist Ikue Mori, and Mori teamed again with Fujii and Tamura on Prickly Pear Cactus (Libra). They also added another duo release, Pentas: A Tribute to Eric and ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii / Natsuki Tamura: Pentas: Tribute To Eric and Chris Stern
by Glenn Astarita
Unquestionable beauty and grace are two of many attributes that help define this pioneering duo's seventh duet album. Pianist/composer Satoko Fuji and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura enjoy acclaimed legacies as leaders. They are contributors to large and small ensembles often cast in futurisms, encompassing progressive jazz, neo-jazz, improvisation and offshoots of world music and indigenous folk. And on this release, their sonic explorations encapsulate gorgeous melodies, memorable hooks, and conventional processes that include symmetrical improvisational dialogues and song-based extensions.
Continue ReadingIkue Mori / Satoko Fujii / Natsuki Tamura: Prickly Pear Cactus
by Dan McClenaghan
Musical collaboration is problematic in Covid-19 times. Rubbing elbows with fellow musicians can translate to positive test results. But the music must roll on. At least that is how electronics wizard/laptopist Ikue Mori, pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura feel. Instead of getting together body and soul, the trio decided to swap sound files on the internet--Mori from her home base in New York, Fujii and Tamura from their household in Kobe, Japan. So sounds flowed across ...
Continue ReadingKaze: 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 ...
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