Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

Satoko Fujii: Kobe Yee!! & Undulation

by Karl A.D. Evangelista
October 28, 2006

The Japanese-American axis of improvisation has a long and eventful history, further complicated in an age of confused identities. Satoko Fujii, one of Japan's brightest and most forward thinking musicians, wears this story on her sleeve, emerging from the bedrock of cultural confusion with, at last, the hope of progress.

Born in 1958, Fujii has cultivated an idiosyncratic approach to piano playing, composition, and arrangement, melding diverse, often conflicting narratives. Her music is stylistically elusive; it bears the inklings of ...

Satoko Fujii: Undulation, Live!!, Maru & Kobe Yee!!

by Bill Bennett
October 28, 2006

This cornucopia of pianist Satoko Fujii's large ensemble work is a daunting package. It's heavy in more ways than one. Four full-length CDs, three of them over an hour in length and one clocking in at 52:31, plus a simultaneously released concert DVD, add up to one heck of a portion of adventurous music to digest in one sitting--or for that matter in dozens of sittings. Listeners will be assimilating, mulling over and enjoying this music for a long time ...

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Live!!

by Jim Santella
October 21, 2006

This 2005 concert at Tokyo's Pit Inn (on CD and DVD) brings seven of Satoko Fujii's extended compositions into the open in living color and with open ears. She features two soloists on each piece and builds the music around them. All eyes are on the leader as she conducts them through a program that ranges from fierce and powerful to soft and gentle.

Fujii's creative music leaves plenty of room for spontaneity from each soloist, yet her ...

Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Undulation

by Jim Santella
October 17, 2006

Satoko Fujii's New York big band carries a big stick, blowing away any and all obstacles as the musicians interpret this program of her soul-stirring compositions. Everyone solos on this creative journey into the avant-garde, and Fujii's cohesive orchestra provides a stable foundation. Undulation, the band's sixth album, is tight. These players have been together long enough that one band member reads the next fluently and with an intuitive disposition.

Fujii's compositions lay the groundwork for creative impressions ...

Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY: Undulation

by Dan McClenaghan
September 15, 2006

Turbulence is a defining characteristic of Satoko Fujii's big band projects, where sections of collaborative sonic turmoil roar into moments of no-holds-barred soloing, with the segments of quirky tranquility sneaking in the back door.Undulation, one of four simultaneously released Fujii big band efforts by the ever-prolific pianist/composer/bandleader, features her longest-standing large ensemble, the Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY, a fifteen-piece ensemble that includes some of the Big Apple's most adventurous jazz musicians: reedmen Tony Malaby, Ellery Eskelin and Andy ...

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe: Kobe Yee!!

by Dan McClenaghan
September 7, 2006

"I just write some music and lead them," says Satoko Fujii, of her Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe. This statement by the Japanese-born pianist/composer of unrestricted imagination refers to the fact that rehersals, gigs and recordings for this particular band are handled by Tetsumasa Kono. The prolific Fujii obviously has a plate piled high with musical projects. Kobe Yee!! is one of four simultaneously released big band discs, hot on the heels of avant trio outings, power house quartet sets, and ...

Satoko Fujii: Undulation and Live!!

by Kurt Gottschalk
June 9, 2006

Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY Undulation Polystar 2006 Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo Live!! Libra 2005

It would be easy to assume that there's something to be gleaned about the differences between Eastern and Western jazz from pianist Satoko Fujii's New York and Tokyo orchestras. Fujii is a singular composer, generally more rooted ...