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Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii
Kaze: Atody Man
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 ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii Solo
by Karl Ackermann
In celebration of her sixtieth birthday, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii plans to release twelve albums in one year; one for each month of 2018. With many other artists it would be fair to question whether such output would compromise the integrity of the music but Fujii is--and has been--one of the most inexhaustible artists of her kind. Foregoing excellence has never been an option for her, and on the first issue of the planned sequence, Solo she exceeds expectations.
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Solo
by Dan McClenaghan
Any solo performance in any discipline--oration, gymnastics, stand-up comedy, music--walks a line between ho-hum and outstanding, between masterful and magnificent. For the pianist, the solo show offers a daunting challenge, and potentially the greatest reward. Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii takes the alone-at-the-keyboard challenge with the first disc in a proposed “one CD release per month" celebration of her sixtieth birthday. The disc is entitled simply: Solo. “Contemplative" is a word that comes to mind on ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Solo
by Mark Corroto
Solo piano performances generally fall into one of two categories--introverted or extraverted affairs. Obvious examples of extraverts are Fats Waller and Art Tatum, while inward-looking pianists are Brad Mehldau and Bill Evans. Extraverts play music pointed at the audience, while introverts internalize the experience. How then do we categorize the music of Satoko Fujii? Her large ensemble creations, like Orchestra New York's Fukushima (Libra, 2017), are bold outward-bound adventures. The same can be said of her Berlin, Nagoya, ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Fukushima
by Karl Ackermann
Satoko Fujii's Orchestra New York has been together since their 1997 debut South Wind (Leo Lab/Libra). A “super group" by any standards, it has remained largely intact over the course of twenty years, bringing the ensemble to its latest release, Fukushima, a memorial suite. The Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by a major earthquake and a subsequent tsunami and was the worst such incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Fujii was in Tokyo at the time, in 2011. There were ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Fukushima
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2011 an earthquake set into motion the events that would create partial meltdown of fuel rods in the reactors in nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Radiation was released. The effects are still felt, and will be for decades (at least)--an especially troubling situation for the only country to have experienced the initially catastrophic and ultimately corrosive and malignant aftermath of a nuclear attack. Satoko Fujii, the Japanese pianist/composer/conductor/band leader has something to say about this, with ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii, Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, Ikue Mori: Aspiration
by Alberto Bazzurro
Quattro pezzi di Satoko Fujii, uno di Natsuki Tamura e un'improvvisazione collettiva compongono questo album, riferibile in primo luogo alla pianista, ma che prosegue al tempo stesso la serie di produzioni discografiche della coppia Fujii/Tamura (che come molti sapranno sono moglie e marito), in questi ultimi anni particolarmente trafficata, con esiti non sempre all'altezza di quanto si ascolta qui, dove la presenza di Wadada Leo Smith gioca certo un ruolo non secondario nella riuscita del lavoro, un'ora abbondante di musica ...
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