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Satoko Fujii & Joe Fonda: Thread Of Light
by Dan McClenaghan
Music finds a way. The potentially deadly Covid-19 virus and the quarantines cannot stop it; they cannot even slow it down. Resourceful artists continue to create, and pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda continue to be perhaps the most resourceful and creative voices out there. Thread of Light, the Fujii/Fonda teaming's fifth album release, came about in a way unlike anything they had done together before. Stymied by the quarantine, Fonda emailed Fujii and expressed his frustrations ...
Continue ReadingFutari: Underground
by John Sharpe
Pandemic enforcement of geographic separation in no way inconveniences the adventurous combo of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito, working together under the banner Futari. Having explored the option of a virtual band on Mosaic (Libra, 2021) by her This Is It! trio, Fujii tries a different approach on Underground, her second album with Saito following Beyond (Libra, 2020). Each recorded their parts separately in their respective residencies, Fujii at home in Kobe in Japan, and Saito 5500 miles ...
Continue ReadingFutari: Beyond
by Neri Pollastri
Tra le molte collaborazioni della pianista giapponese Satoko Fujii, particolarmente singolare e riuscita è questa con la connazionale vibrafonista Taiko Saito, assieme alla quale ha dato vita al duo Futari. Le due artiste si conoscono dalla metà degli anni 2000, quando si incontrarono a Berlino in occasione di un concerto della Fujii e dove la Saito si trovava per ragioni di studio. In seguito la vibrafonista rimase in Germania, dove tuttora vive, e gli incontri si susseguirono, senza tuttavia che ...
Continue ReadingThis Is It!: Mosaic
by John Sharpe
Fittingly for an artist as relentlessly exploratory as pianist Satoko Fujii, on Mosaic she pushes at the boundaries of recording technology, as well as the music, and comes up trumps. For the second release from the trio This Is It! lack of physical proximity proved no obstacle. Confined to base during the pandemic, Fujii and husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura coordinated their parts in her tiny practice room, while drummer Takashi Itani collaborated from his apartment bedroom 264 miles away in ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Aural Abstracts
by Doug Collette
Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii had already released one of the year's most notable albums Piano Music (Libra Records, 2021) by the time Underground and Mosaic came out. And yet these two titles, conceived and executed in markedly different ways, reaffirm the woman's ingenuity as much as her prolific nature (along with close to another handful of records out in this calendar year). As with the best jazz on record from the studio or onstage in performance, it is virtually impossible to ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii: Mosaic
by Dan McClenaghan
Another Covid-19 pandemic year, 2021, seems to have brought about a revival of Japanese pianist Satoko Fuji's duo work, with her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura on Keishin, and with vibraphonist Taiko Saito--a pairing dubbed “Futari"--on Underground and Beyond. All three discs are on Libra Records. As the year winds down, she teams once again with Tamura, and brings another artist, Takashi Itani, into their duo orbit, to form a piano trio of sorts, in a group they call “This Is ...
Continue ReadingDan McClenaghan's Best Jazz Recordings of 2021
by Dan McClenaghan
The top jazz recordings of 2021, in the order in which they were encountered... Aki Takase / Christian Weber / Michael Griener Auge Intakt Records The ever mercurial Japanese-born, Berlin-based pianist Aki Takase presents her take on the piano trio. Teaming with bassist Christian Weber and drummer Michael Griener, she creates Auge, wide open, unpredictable music full of odd grooves and serpentine twists and turns. By turns frenetic and pensive, prickly and fluidly beautiful, ...
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