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Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii
Satoko Fujii: Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams
by Alberto Bazzurro
Inciso al DiMenna Center di New York nel settembre 2022, questo album è forse il migliore, il più importante e ambizioso, realizzato dalla pianista giapponese in tempi recenti (e sappiamo quanto corposa sia la sua produzione da un po' di anni in qua). Basta, da subito, scorrere i nomi coinvolti nel progetto (in special modo il “grande vecchio" Wadada Leo Smith) per rendersene conto. La musica, poi, ci toglie da ogni dubbio o imbarazzo: siamo di fronte a un lavoro ...
Continue ReadingTrio San: Hibiki
by Dan McClenaghan
Put a vibraphone into a small ensemble, listen in and the label “exotica" might come up--that exotic music pioneered by Martin Denny and Juan Garcia Esquivel. The pairing of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito--a duo they call Futari--on their two terrific albums, Beyond (2021) and Underground (2022), both on Libra Records, sounded like exotica from the Twilight Zone. There is something about the glowing murk of vibes combined with the out-of-this-world sounds of Fujii's prepared piano ruminations that ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: One Hundred And Counting!
by Doug Collette
Satoko Fujii is that rare artist whose technical and intuitive talents are as readily apparent in collaboration with others as when she is working on her own. To that end, she seems bent on exploring as deeply as possible the innumerable combinations of musicians and instruments available to her. And that's not to mention the variety of settings on stage and in the studio where she can conduct those inspired blends of talent and skill. One of, if not the ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Torrent
by Karl Ackermann
Satoko Fujii's vast catalog encompasses every formation and a creative music approach that pushes the imagination's boundaries. Relative to her output of duo, trio, and orchestral projects, Fujii's solo work had been limited, pre-lockdown, but if there was a silver lining to the pandemic, it was hovering over her “piano room." In that space, she was inspired to turn out a number of outstanding piano releases. Torrent finds the virtuoso improviser back in the studio, still embracing solitude. However, unlike ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Torrent
by Dan McClenaghan
It starts with assertive flurries. The tune is “Torrent," also the album title. From the opening flurries, things do swell in the direction of a torrent. This is pianist Satoko Fujii sitting down at the piano without a pre-planned set. She conjures the music, much as pianist Keith Jarrett did in his monumental solo shows before medical problems sidelined him. But solo piano is not the only game Fujii plays. The prolific artist--with about a hundred album releases ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Crustal Movement
by Jeff Schwartz
In the first few minutes of “Masoandro Mitsoka," a soft wash of white noise becomes differentiated into piano, percussion, electronics and two trumpets as the acoustic instruments move from breath and friction sounds to identifiably instrumental ones. Next the ensemble reduces to the trumpets, and they move from parallel play to a clear conversation. When piano, percussion and electronics return, they function as a free jazz rhythm section, backing one trumpet, then both, then the other. Instrumental ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Perpetual Motion
by Mike Jurkovic
Space may be the final frontier for some, but for pianist Satoko Fujii and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide its inner and outer most reaches, string theories, bosons, black holes and wormholes have provided a veritable playground, an infinite source of daring and inspiration. So one might wonder why it took these two mainstays of the Japanese avant-garde nearly thirty years (and well over one hundred and fifty albums between them) to take the stage together in January 2022 at ...
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