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Results for "Satoko Fujii"
Stephan Crump: Stephan Crump's Rhombal
by Mark Corroto
Often times, a jazz performance without a chordal instrument, a guitar or piano, is considered to be flying without a net. Exciting, but often without aim. It routinely relies on just one powerful figure to command the proceedings. That is, unless the ensemble is configured under egalitarian principles. Equal contribution and respect for the differing voices ...
Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda: Duet
by Budd Kopman
The story behind the creation of the miraculous album, Duet by pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda is one of those things that makes one a believer in karma. Although both have played with reed man Gebhard Ullmann in various configurations, Fujii and Fonda had never met, and had not heard much, if ...
Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda with Natsuki Tamura: Duet
by Karl Ackermann
Two of creative music's most inventive forces come together on Duet. Musical restiveness is at the core of pianist/accordionist and composer Satoko Fujii. With a catalogue three-score deep, she has covered formations from large orchestra to solo where the common denominator is her wide and daring exploration of improvisational spaces. Her adroit aptitude for moving through--and ...
Porta Palace Collective: Neuroplastic Groove
by Eyal Hareuveni
The Italian Porta Palace Collective began its work as a Torino-based quintet led by trumpeter Johnny Lapio releasing its self-titled debut album last year (Rudi Records, 2015). This album offered European abstraction of modern jazz with with touches of free jazz and avant-garde, featuring the Collective augmented by veteran trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini, known from the Italian ...
Nathan Hubbard / Skeleton Key Orchestra: Furiously Dreaming
by Dave Wayne
Sprawling. Massive. Unapologetically ambitious. All over the musical map. But, somehow, not excessive. Furiously Dreaming is a two-CD set by percussionist / composer / musical visionary Nathan Hubbard and his 50-member (for this recording) Skeleton Key Orchestra. The leader or co-leader of a dozen or so different small ensembles playing everything from modern jazz to contemporary ...
Ellery Eskelin Trio Willisau: Live
by Mark Corroto
I considered writing just this sentence as my review of Ellery Eskelin's trio recording Live, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Taken from poet John Keats' 1818 poem “Endymion," the line just about says it all. Ok, to appease those that need a bit more information, Keats continues, “its loveliness increases / ...
Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke
by Karl Ackermann
In the liner notes for A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke, pianist Vijay Iyer notes that he and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith would often become a sub-segment of the quartet in which the two played. Following their collaboration in New York City in 2015, ECM chief Manfred Eicher brought the two master artists together to make ...
Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus: The Distance
by Dan McClenaghan
Here's a surprise. Bassist Michael Formanek is probably best known for his two recent ECM Records dates, Rub and Spare Change (2010) and Small Places, a couple of modernistic quartet sessions featuring saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver. These are tight and intense sets, architecturally solid, free-like outings that may have helped ...
Marc Mommaas / Nikolaj Hess: Ballads & Standards
by Budd Kopman
Many, if not most, of today's jazz players end up, sooner or later, becoming composers. Hence, on top of searching for and hopefully finding their personal means of expression when performing (composing in real-time), they now must also develop a personal compositional style which fits their aesthetic outlook, and which is accessible enough by other players ...
Kaja Draksler / Susana Santos Silva: This Love
by John Sharpe
Slovenian pianist Kaja Draksler and Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva came together at Lisbon's Culturgest in March 2015 to create This Love. While it's their first duet album, they've been making music together in various groups since 2008, first in the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, an international big band of young up-coming musicians, and later in ...
