Jazz Articles about Satoko Fujii

About Satoko Fujii

Multiple Reviews

Satoko Fujii: One Hundred And Counting!

by Doug Collette
May 21, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Torrent

Read "Torrent" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 18, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Torrent

Read "Torrent" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 15, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Crustal Movement

Read "Crustal Movement" reviewed by Jeff Schwartz

by Jeff Schwartz
April 21, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Perpetual Motion

Read "Perpetual Motion" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 4, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement

Read "Crustal Movement" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
March 24, 2023

Crustal Movement is the seventh album from the Peter Orins/Satoko Fujii founded quartet-turned-quintet, Kaze. Now billed as Kaze & Ikue Mori, it represents the second consecutive album from the French- Japanese collective where the electronics artist has played a significant role. The two trumpeters, and original group members, Natsuki Tamura, and Christian Pruvost round out the group. Over the course of more than ten years, Kaze, and their one-time extended sextet, Trouble Kaze, have played at the outer ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii, Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion

Read "Perpetual Motion" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 8, 2023

Inciso in quel di Tokio all'inizio del 2022, è da qualche settimana sul mercato questo nuovo lavoro della pianista Satoko Fujii, discograficamente attivissima nell'anno dei suoi sessanta (2018, con un disco al mese) e comunque incline a documentarsi con una certa assiduità nel settore specifico al di là di celebrazioni e ricorrenze varie. In questo Perpetual Motion, svolto lungo quattro generalmente ampi episodi per poco meno di cinquanta minuti di musica senza rete, la pianista nipponica si ...