Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

About Satoko Fujii

Album Review

Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii's June 2018 edition of her CD-release-a-month celebration of her sixtieth birthday introduces a new trio, called This Is It!. The group's debut recording takes its name from the Celsius melting point of iron. The group is a variation on the Satoko Fujii New Trio, a piano trio that released the excellent Spring Storm (Libra Records, 2014). The new configuration replaces bassist Todd Nicholson with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Fujii and drummer Takashi Itani remain. The music ...

Album Review

This Is It!: 1538

by Karl Ackermann
June 19, 2018

At the half-way point of Satoko Fujii's year-long celebration of her sixtieth birthday, she presents a new trio configuration--This is It!--with familiar figures. Her sixth of twelve releases for the year is titled 1538 and features her almost ubiquitous musical partner and spouse Natsuki Tamura and drummer Takashi Itani. The significance of the title lies in Fujii's wish to convey the imagery of intense heat and 1538 degrees Celsius is the temperature at which iron melts. It's safe to say ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Triad

by Karl Ackermann
June 15, 2018

Triad is the fifth of twelve monthly albums to be released as part of pianist-composer Satoko Fujii's extended celebration of her sixtieth birthday. It is also her second album with the legendary American bassist Joe Fonda. Duet (Long Song Records, 2016), recorded live in Portland, Maine in 2015, had brought the pair together at Fonda's request though the two were barely familiar with each other's music. Despite the album title, one of the two tracks included Fujii's trumpeter husband Natsuki ...

Album Review

Kira Kira: Bright Force

Read "Bright Force" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 30, 2018

Kira Kira's otherwise all-Japanese lineup includes Australian keyboardist Alister Spence to round out a topsy-turvy experimental soundscape with lateral movements, surging improv, cascadinging keys and free-spirited flareups. Renowned pianist and composer Satoko Fujii and her associates explore a multidimensional territory with avant-garde extremism combined with structured song-forms or themes, and brashly enacted polyrhythms supplied by drummer Ittetsu Takemura. Fuji's husband and frequent collaborator, Natsuki Tamura's agile and power-packed trumpet is in full-force with typically brisk phrasings and edgy shadings.

Album Review

Kira Kira: Bright Force

Read "Bright Force" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 20, 2018

Pianist Satoko Fujii was playing for the Sydney Improvised Music Association in 2007 when she first crossed paths with composer/keyboardist/effects artist Alister Spence. Kindred spirits in terms of boundless musical interests, their initial collaboration took place in 2008 after their respective groups shared the stage at the Tokyo Jazz Festival. Later that year, the two recorded as part of The Raymond MacDonald International Big Band on Buddy (Textile Records, 2010). That group included Fujii's trumpeter husband Natsuki Tamura and accounts ...

Album Review

Kira Kira: Bright Force

Read "Bright Force" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 19, 2018

The label “music" may be too confining for these sounds. Let us call it an ear-opening sonic experience. That's what pianist Satoko Fujii, with her new group, Kira Kira, has created with a compelling recording called Bright Force. In the year 2018, every review of Fujii's output will include a prelude describing her decision to release an album per month, in celebration of her sixtieth birthday. She does know how to throw a dynamic and distinctive celebration.

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Atody Man

Read "Atody Man" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
April 18, 2018

Secondo album (dopo lo splendido Solo) dei dodici previsti quest'anno da Satoko Fujii per celebrare il sessantesimo compleanno (clicca qui per leggere la sua intervista), questo Atody Man vede la pianista alla testa del suo quartetto Kaze nel quale oltre la tromba del compagno Natsuki Tamura troviamo i francesi Chistian Pruvost, anch'egli alla tromba, e Peter Orins, alla batteria. La formazione è al suo quinto album, se si include anche June, del 2016, nel quale si allargava a ...