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Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: ETO
by Troy Collins
In addition to an ever-changing array of small combos, tireless Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii continues to lead four international big bands, each based in a different city (Kobe, Nagoya, New York and Tokyo). Of the four, her New York based Orchestra is both her oldest and most prolific, having maintained virtually the same line-up since 1997. ETO, dedicated to her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura on the eve of his sixtieth birthday, is the Orchestra's eighth recording.A milestone event ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii with Natsuki Tamura: Chicago, Illinois, June 27, 2011
by Hrayr Attarian
Satoko Fujii with Natsuki TamuraPianoforteChicago, IllinoisJune 27, 2011 The intimate salon at Pianoforte, Chicago's premier piano shop and performance venue, was extremely well suited for Satoko Fujii's intensely personal, introspective music, especially in the solo and duet formats. This was Fujii's much anticipated Chicago debut and she did not disappoint. Opening with a lullaby-like tune inspired by her noisy piano seat at home, she laid down a sparse and deceptively simple ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Zakopane
by Raul d'Gama Rose
There are several outstanding qualities that emerge in pianist Satoko Fujii's big band writing. She has an extraordinarily sense of color that plays upon the moist exquisiteness of muted shades, as well as recognizing and utilizing the vivid ends of her palette of colors. She also combines ingenious use of the timbre of various elements of a big band--brass, reeds and woodwinds, strings that replicate the rhythmic nature of the piano and those in the lowest register, and brilliant use ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii ma-do: Desert Ship
by John Sharpe
Desert Ship represents the second outing by Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii's ma-do quartet, following on from the acclaimed Heat Wave (Not Two, 2008). Like its predecessor, this well-recorded studio session presents an eclectic set of nine original compositions in a 57-minute program.
Already with a discography numbering over 60 entries, Fujii has provided a catalog as diverse as it is prolific, ranging from solo to big band by way of everything in between. Her near-constant musical companion, trumpeter and husband ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii at the Vortex, London
by John Sharpe
Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura The Vortex London 12 April 2010
When considering marital harmony, the Roman poet Ovid got it right. He said “If you would marry suitably, marry your equal." And that balanced union is exactly what the husband-and-wife team of Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura has achieved. Touching down at north London's Vortex for the first UK date of a short European tour, they affirmed their breathtaking empathy as a ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Ma-Do: Desert Ship
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist/bandleader Satoko Fujii's Ma-Do Quartet is loud, with a dense volume that is often stately, often fractured. The same can be said of much of her recorded output.Fujii is a stunningly prolific artist who records in a dizzying array of ensemble configurations. Of her two most notable quartets, the Ma-Do band is described as an explorer of the quieter, more subtle side of her acoustic music. It is, though, all relative. Her louder and less intimate electric Satoko ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Ma-Do: Desert Ship
by Troy Collins
On her 50th album as a leader/co-leader, prolific Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii reconvenes her newest acoustic quartet, Ma-Do, for its sophomore effort, Desert Ship. Following in the footsteps of 2008's brilliant Heat Wave (Not Two), this vivacious studio set continues to explore the darker regions of Fujii's oeuvre.
More heavily notated than some of Fujii's work, these labyrinthine compositions rely on a rigorous blend of intricate structure and unfettered freedom. Offsetting the quartet's predilection for massed sonorities, Fujii ...
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