Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

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Satoko Fujii Quartet: Minerva

by Jim Santella
April 2, 2003

With its second album, the Satoko Fujii Quartet takes off. Minerva – the Roman goddess of wisdom, invention, the arts, and martial prowess – must surely be looking down from her high abode these days and smiling. Perhaps Lester Bowie and Don Pullen are sitting alongside her. After all, they share Minerva’s respect for invention and wisdom in the arts more than most earthly souls do.

Pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura have picked up the ...

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Satoko Fujii Quartet: Minerva

by Dan McClenaghan
March 16, 2003

Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii--who as much as anybody out there defies the category trap--has recorded in a variety of settings: solo, duo, trio, big band. On 2001's Vulcan, with a quartet, she created arguably her most entrancing sound to date as she teamed with trumpeter (and her husband) Natuki Tamura, bassist Takeharu Hayakawa and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida for one of the most innovative recording of that year.The Japan/New York-based Fujii eploys the same quartet on her new Minerva in ...

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Satoko Fujii: Bell the Cat

by Dan McClenaghan
October 3, 2002

A tough review, this new CD, Bell the Cat! by Satoko Fujii. Her art is an indescribable entity. Avant-Garde, adventurous, daring, startling, “out there." All of those and more. Pianist/composer Fujii began her musical journey in Japan, studying classical music. But she soon found that world too dulling and stuffy for her temperment. Improvisation and freedom, it seems, were in her blood, and her own music mixed itself into an amalgam of jazz, classical, traditional Japanese folk, with ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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. ...