Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

Natsuki Tamura & Satoko Fujii: Clouds

by Jim Santella
May 1, 2002

Creative improvised music leaves impressions with us that we translate from our past experiences. A storm sequence or a summer breeze can be as obvious in music as it is on an artist's canvas or through a photographer's lens. Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and pianist Satoko Fujii improvise six sketches on this session with a natural ease. It's as if they're talking. Wah-wah horn cries and muffled neighs give way to harp-like glissandi, falling cascades, and swinging melodies. In ...

Satoko Fujii & Natsuki Tamura: Clouds

by Jerry D'Souza
April 12, 2002

In the realm of the senses two imaginations entwine. From that fertile fabric comes sounds that elevate, startle and thrill. This is not surprising considering the fact that Fujii and Tamura have a knack of building some very intriguing sound structures.

The husband and wife team showed an affinity for drawing upon each other in their first duo album “How Many?” The kaleidoscope of sound that they twirled was startling, the dynamics that sprang from the exploration bold ...

Satoko Fujii Quartet: Vulcan

by Jim Santella
January 1, 2002

Four forward-looking artists combine their experience and creative passion for one smokin' session. Satoko Fujii has consistently maintained that dramatic tension be applied to jazz in moderate doses. Vulcan rises and falls with a natural feeling. Like the world around us, her compositions encounter changes in mood – from violent to gentle, bold and humble – dark and mysterious one moment and sunny the next. It's an album of contrasts.

Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura employs a full, round tone to interpret ...

Satoko Fujii Trio: Junction

by Jim Santella
November 1, 2001

What a trip!

From her title track, on down the line, Satoko Fujii's Junction characterizes jazz's modern mainstream as swinging, soulful, and teeming with creative ideas. The music needs outlets like this one in order to grow. Fujii's trio improvises freely, but remains accessible. European classical studies, American jazz traditions, and worldwide folk patterns merge easily as one genre. Dramatic tension is balanced by casual release. The three talented artists produce a session that is certainly worth repeated listening sessions. ...

Satoko Fujii: Junction/Vulcan

by Mark Corroto
October 1, 2001

Satoko Fujii just continues to excel in each situation she enters. The young pianist, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, has recorded everything from solo sessions to large orchestras. Her album, Double Take (Ewe Music 2000), was a masterpiece of large avant-garde ensembles, recording the same music with two orchestras, one Japanese and one American. She has done duets with Paul Bley, her husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and, Mark Feldman April ...

Satoko Fujii: April Shower

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2001

Satoko Fujii's daring electicism has marked every encounter since her debut recording with Paul Bley in 1996. She has demonstrated a fearless openness to stylistic freedom that makes everything she's done in the last five years difficult to categorize. Quite simply, the pianist does not fit into any neat little boxes. On April Shower, she joins promiscuous in-and-out violinist Mark Feldman for a workout of free and lyrical tunes that flow together to form a patchwork quilt of improvisation. Feldman ...

Satoko Fujii: Toward, "To West"

by AAJ Staff
November 1, 2000

Pianist Satoko Fujii refuses to be categorized. (And let me tell you, most jazz reviewers hate that.) Her playing spans the range from tight swing to avant thunder, from experiments inside the piano to tinkering with the blues. For her trio work, she has found worthy companions in exploration. TO West, her second record with bassist Mark Dresser and Jim Black, continues where 1998's Looking Out the Window left off. On To West, Dresser's work ranges from straight-ahead to full-tilt ...