Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

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Satoko Fujii Four: When We Were There

by Troy Collins
November 20, 2006

When We Were There is the first studio album by pianist Satoko Fujii's new quartet. Her long-running trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black was recently augmented on 2004's Live In Japan (MTCJ) by her husband and frequent collaborator, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Eschewing the long form, multipart compositions she is known for, she shifts her focus towards shorter, more concise pieces on this session (her eighth with Dresser and Black).

Equally proficient at inside and outside ...

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Satoko Fujii: Bell The Cat!, Illusion Suite, Minerva, Zephyros, and Angelona

by Virginia A. Schaefer
November 18, 2006

This article looks at five recent albums by pianist and composer Satoko Fujii. Bell The Cat! and Illusion Suite were recorded by the Satoko Fujii Trio. Minerva, Zephyros and Angelona were recorded by the Satoko Fujii Quartet. Fujii's trio plays avant-garde jazz that uses Eastern European or Balkan scales, and complex meters. Bassist Mark Dresser plays a notable role in shaping and propelling the trio's performance. In the quartet, rock-influenced grooves and assertive sound are shaped and ...

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Satoko Fujii: Blueprint, Before The Dawn, Sketches, Live In Japan 2004, Fragment

by Virginia A. Schaefer
November 18, 2006

The prolific pianist, composer and bandleader Satoko Fujii performs and records with a variety of musical configurations. Discs by her two, well established, small groups--the Satoko Fujii Trio and Satoko Fujii Quartet--are reviewed in Part One of this article. Fujii also leads two jazz orchestras, both of which include Natsuki Tamura playing trumpet and contributing compositions. The Satoko Fujii Orchestra, consisting largely of musicians of non-Japanese origin, performs Blueprint, rich in big band-style arranging as well as ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...