Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

About Satoko Fujii

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin: Ninety-Nine Years

Read "Ninety-Nine Years" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 13, 2018

Three months and three releases into the Satoko Fujii's sixtieth birthday project, the eclectic composer keeps the mix from her musical arsenal, a varied and intriguing monthly adventure. Ninety-Nine Years follows her 2018 Libra releases Solo and Kaze's Atody Man and here Fujii calls out her larger company of Orchestra Berlin. Of her five distinct orchestras, Berlin is the most recently formed having debuted on Libra in 2015 with Ichigo Ichie. The ensemble from the maiden release remains intact with ...

Interview

Satoko Fujii: the Gift of Music

by Angelo Leonardi
March 7, 2018

One of the most original and prolific voices in jazz today, Satoko Fujii is celebrating 2018, the year of her 60th birthday (which will fall on October 9th), by intensifying her already intense recording schedule. The Japanese pianist and composer will be releasing one CD a month featuring new works for some of her current groups, launching special projects and introducing new bands. All About jazz: Let's talk about your plan of releasing one CD a month until ...

Album Review

Kaze: Atody Man

Read "Atody Man" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 5, 2018

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Solo

by Neri Pollastri
February 12, 2018

Il 2017 è stato per la pianista giapponese Satoko Fujii un anno di grazia, che l'ha vista pubblicare un impressionante numero di lavori di altissimo livello nelle più diverse formazioni -come Aspiration, in quartetto con Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura e Ikue Mori, Trouble Kaze in sestetto, Peace con l'orchestra di Tokio e Invisible Hand in solo (clicca qui per le recensioni di questi tre album), spesso avventurandosi sui rischiosi territori dell'improvvisazione più estrema. Ma il 2018 si annuncia per ...

Interview

Satoko Fujii: un anno di celebrazioni

by Angelo Leonardi
February 12, 2018

La pianista e bandleader giapponese Satoko Fujii è una delle protagoniste della musica improvvisata internazionale: in veste di leader o co-leader ha pubblicato più di 80 album spaziando da lavori in solo, piccoli organici e sontuosi progetti orchestrali. In questi evidenzia una personale e avvincente sintesi tra avanguardia post-free, sperimentazione accademica ed aspetti della tradizione culturale giapponese. Per celebrare il sessantesimo compleanno (che avverrà esattamente il prossimo 9 ottobre) Satoko Fujii ha pensato di pubblicare un nuovo disco ...

Album Review

Kaze: Atody Man

Read "Atody Man" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 9, 2018

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 ...

Album Review

Kaze: Atody Man

Read "Atody Man" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 27, 2018

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 ...