Ki to be released September 19, 2025 via Libra Records
Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and Trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura Dare to Be Quietly Adventurous on Their Tenth Duo Album
“It’s rare to sense this level of intuition between musicians.” – Kurt Gottschalk, New York City Jazz Record
“They can … charm, seduce, bewilder and ease a worried mind.” – Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz
Only musicians as virtuosic as pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura could pull off an album as lovely as Ki (Libra Records, release date September 19, 2025). While not a display of slam-bang pyrotechnics, their tenth duo recording nevertheless draws on all their vast musical resources. Featuring seven new compositions from Tamura (each named for a species of tree) and a lone Fujii original, the album sustains an atmosphere of hushed lyricism. But the interest never flags on this album, comprised entirely of slow-tempo ballads. Thanks to the duo’s astonishing control of all aspects of music making and the intimacy of their performances, Ki is full of surprise, variety, finely crafted detail, and emotional depth.
Followers of the music of Fujii and Tamura may be reminded of Tamura’s band, Gato Libre, which was also notable for its intense lyricism and quiet intensity. “Since our last album, Aloft, is improvised music, we wanted to try something new,” Fujii said. “I suggested to Natsuki that he apply the Gato Libre concept to our duo.”
“The lyricism of Gato Libre was always in my mind, but with this duo I was conscious of creating an even more extremely dignified world,” Tamura said. “This time, I wanted to play the entire album with the same atmosphere. The image of that atmosphere was of standing dignified in clear air. I wrote my seven songs in two days, so I was able to maintain that image. I just thought about the world I wanted to create.”
“As soon as we rehearsed, I loved the music,” Fujii said. “It was not easy for me to play it because the music forces me to play less than I usually do. At first, I wasn’t comfortable playing that way because it was so new to me!”
Before they went into the studio with the new songs, they played them during three concerts in California. “It was a special experience for me,” Fujii said. “I felt very strong and deep emotions. I don’t know how I can explain it, it was a feeling that I had never had before. For me, it was a different experience to not have think about changing tempos and different moods in the music.”
Indeed, the music remains at the same leisurely tempo and in an introspective mood for the entire album. However each piece is a source of quiet fascination. Fujii opens “Keyaki” with deep, tolling piano notes that she allows to decay into silence before striking another. Tamura’s contrasting soft trumpet lines etch a simple melody over the Fujii’s resonant piano tones as they begin a call and response that gradually becomes two improvised melodies. The deliberate pace and contrasting textures create a feeling of drama and suspense. The contrast between bright percussive piano phrases and translucent, smoking trumpet tones heightens the mood of “Sugi.” They use their sounds to intensify their simple improvised phrases. In its quiet way, it’s quite daring. Unaccompanied solos create variety on “Kusunoki.” Tamura enlivens the simplicity of his solo with deliberate note placement, nuanced timbres and careful reshaped variations on his themes. Fujii’s “Dan’s Oceanside Listening Post” features a lovely dialog between piano and trumpet, alternating between simultaneous improvising and call and response. They make silence an important part of each tune, but it is a living silence that is inseparable from the music’s majesty and intimacy.
© Hideo Arimoto
Pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, “an improviser of rumbling intensity and generous restraint” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times), is one of the most original voices in jazz today. For nearly 30 years, she has created a unique, personal music that spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical, rock, and traditional Japanese music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific composer for ensembles of all sizes and a performer who has appeared around the world, she was the recipient of a 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music, in recognition of her “artistic intelligence, independence, and integrity.”
Since she burst onto the scene in 1996, Fujii has performed and recorded prolifically. In 2022, she released her 100th album as a leader. On the way to this impressive milestone, she has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music. Highlights include a piano trio with Mark Dresser and Jim Black (1997-2009) and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins (2001-2008). In addition to a wide variety of small groups of different instrumentation, Fujii also performs in a duo with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, with whom she’s recorded ten albums since 1997. She and Tamura are also one half of the international free-jazz quartet Kaze, which has released eight albums since their debut in 2011. Fujii has established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Fully a quarter of her albums have been with jazz orchestras, prompting Cadence magazine to call her “the Ellington of free jazz.”
Trumpeter and composer Natsuki Tamura is internationally recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends jazz lyricism with extended techniques. In addition to appearing with many of Fujii’s projects and recordings, he is a leader in his own right. 2003 was a breakout year for Tamura as a bandleader, with the release of Hada Hada (Libra), featuring his free jazz-avant rock quartet with Fujii on synthesizer. In 2005, he made a 180-degree turn with the debut of his all acoustic Gato Libre quartet, focusing on the intersection of European folk music and sound abstraction.
In 1998, Tamura released the first of his unaccompanied trumpet albums, A Song for Jyaki (Leo Lab). He followed it up in 2003 with KoKoKoKe (Polystar/NatSat) and in 2021, he celebrated his 70th birthday with Koki Solo (Libra), which Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz described as “quirky fun in an age of uncertainty.”
Tamura’s category-defying abilities make him “unquestionably one of the most adventurous trumpet players on the scene today,” said Marc Chenard in Coda.
Satoko Fujii-Natsuki Tamura – Ki
Libra Records – Catalog Number: 102-081 Recorded July 15, 2025
Release date – September 19, 2025
www.satokofujii.com/
www.natsukitamura.com/
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