Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

About Satoko Fujii

Album Review

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

Read "Aspiration" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 5, 2017

The soul of Gato Libre, and the glue that holds numerous global jazz orchestras together, are in the musical and personal partnership that has mastered creative music in a variety of formations and settings. Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura are prolific and boundless and Aspiration is the latest of their more than sixty recordings together. Aspiration credits Fujii as the album's leader, by virtue of her contributions as the primary composer. Joining Fujii and Tamura are the legendary trumpeter/composer Wadada ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii / Natsuki Tamura: Kisaragi

Read "Kisaragi" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 17, 2017

As creative pairings go, there are none who surpass trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii. The husband and wife team play together in various settings from Fujii's numerous orchestras (New York, Berlin, Tokyo), the quartet Kaze, and the (now) trio formation Gato Libre. The results are never predictable. Their duo outings, more often than not, lean toward quirky lyricism. On Kisaragi, their fifth such recording, the duo opts for improvised abstractions where the emphasis is on unusual sounds.

Multiple Reviews

Satoko Fuji: Invisible Hand, Trouble Kaze: June, Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace

by Giuseppe Segala
May 15, 2017

Tre recenti realizzazioni discografiche della pianista Satoko Fujii mettono in evidenza quanto l'ampio ventaglio della sua ispirazione sia in continuo fermento, coniugando la sperimentazione di nuovi organici strumentali allo scandaglio di tecniche compositive e improvvisative, in una rete di contrasti che danno forma a un ampio affresco in costante movimento. In particolare, emerge il lavoro in piano solo dei due CD che compongono Invisible Hand, dove si ha modo di saggiare una dimensione intima, che scava in varie direzioni con ...

Album Review

Trouble Kaze: June

by John Sharpe
March 18, 2017

In its original form, the French-Japanese collective Kaze was already a novel proposition, with the double trumpet spearhead of Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost allied to Satoko Fujii's piano and Peter Orins' drums. But on June, the novelty quotient ratchets up a notch further with the doubling of the piano and drum set. That the additional pianist is Sophie Agnel, renowned for her exploration of the piano as a sound generation device, piques the interest yet further. Rather than the ...

Album Review

Trouble Kaze: June

by Dan McClenaghan
February 22, 2017

Avant-garde pianist/composer Satoko Fujii augments her quartet, Kaze, with an additional piano and another drummer, to create Trouble Kaze, for the release of June. In Fujii's eighty-plus CD discography, Kaze can be counted as one of her most adventurous modes of artistic expression. With trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Christian Pruvost working an array of extended techniques to push the limits of their instruments to the maximum; with Fujii's prepared and inside-the-piano ministrations, and the often explosive drumming from ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Invisible Hand

Read "Invisible Hand" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 12, 2017

In Satoko Fujii's extensive discography--about eighty releases, including recordings by several big bands and a variety a small combo groups--solo piano outings are scarce. There was Sketches (NatSat Records, 2004); and Gen Himmel (Libra Records, 2013), and not much else. Until now, with a Invisible Hand, a double CD set, recorded live at the jazz club Cortez, in Mito, Japan. Set 1 (disc 1), features Fujii's explorations in free improvisation. In contrast to her ensemble music--often explosive and ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Invisible Hand

Read "Invisible Hand" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
February 12, 2017

Pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, otherwise known by the cognoscenti as “the Ellington of free jazz" and “musical citizen of the world," has produced an enormous body of work as a leader, co-leader or sideman that now numbers around 80 CDs in many configurations ranging from solo to big band. After spending even a short time listening to her oeuvre, her style, as varied as it is over the different formats and through the years, becomes immediately recognizable as “Fujii." ...