Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

About Satoko Fujii

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii Solo

Read "Satoko Fujii Solo" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
January 17, 2018

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.

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Solo

by Dan McClenaghan
January 13, 2018

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Solo

by Mark Corroto
January 11, 2018

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, ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii, Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, Ikue Mori: Aspiration

Read "Aspiration" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
October 24, 2017

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii Quartet: Live At Jazz Room Cortez

Read "Live At Jazz Room Cortez" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 14, 2017

As prolific as Satoko Fujii is, she has never sacrificed quality for quantity. With a half-dozen leader/co-leader releases in just the past year, no two albums have conveyed redundancy, and none have fallen short of her serious artistic standards. Following the live sessions that led to Satoko Fujii's solo recording Invisible Hand (Cortez Sound, 2017), the pianist/composer was invited back to Jazz Room Cortez in Mito, Japan for a group performance. Two extended pieces from Fujii's repertoire were chosen for ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Aspiration

Read "Aspiration" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
September 15, 2017

A descent into minimalist precision and emotive texture, Satoku Fuji's Aspiration bequeaths listeners with the depths of creativity that stems from residing on the edge of the avant-garde for decades. Which is precisely where music pioneers pianist Fuji, long-time trumpet partner Natsuki Tamura, electronica experimentalist Ikue Mori, and innovator Wadada Leo Smith remain.The album's six pulsating compositions are the result of the collaboration between these four artists as conceived by Fuji, but were born out of the participants ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Aspiration

Read "Aspiration" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 6, 2017

The teaming of pianist Satoko Fujii with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, both artists possessed of unwavering and uncompromising artistic visions, comes to life with Aspiration. Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, Fujii's husband and musical partner is here too, as is laptop/electronics wizardess, Ikue Mori, making it a quartet of iconoclasts. Smith and Tamura, two of the most unconventional trumpeters on the scene, players who often explode into wildly “outside" territory, explore here--and this has always been a part of their ...