21 Jan

[ January 26th, 2024 release via Libra Records: Satoko Fujii’s Tokyo Trio – Jet Black ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

With Jet Black, Pianist and Composer Satoko Fujii’s Tokyo Trio Takes Its Place Among the Great Piano Trios of Our Time. Trio’s new recording to be released January 26, 2024 via Libra Records.

“Satoko Fujii’s Tokyo Trio isn’t even close to being a conventional jazz trio . . . But it is a Satoko Fujii ensemble in every sense, with the grace, sophistication, surprise and ingenuity found in every other of her ensembles. Only this time in a small, nimble, and deceptively familiar construction.” — Victor Aaron, Something Else!

“a beautifully present trio that speaks to us now and no doubt will stand the test of time . . .” — Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Music Review

09 Nov

[ November 10th, 2023 release on Jazzdor Records Trio SAN – Hibiki ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

Trio San, featuring pianist-composer Satoko Fujii, mallet virtuoso Taiko Saito, and master drummer Yuko Oshima showcase their immediate and profound group chemistry on their debut album Hibiki out November 10, 2023 via Jazzdor Records. Recorded near the end of a European tour, Hibiki finds them immersed deeply in their own private musical world, a world full of delicate beauty, thunderous energy, and sudden surprises.

“Fujii’s music can’t get much closer to improvisational music perfection…” – Victor Aaron, Something Else!

“Oshima’s rigorously developing rudiments, as well as wild crescendos and diminuendos, seem to tell a stor ywith every stroke.” – Tampere Jazz Happening

“Saito celebrates mystery, clarity of vision, and rejection of blueprints and “best-laid plans” in favor of discovery and surprise combined with a wide-ranging sense of wonder.” – Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

01 Jun

[ June the 2nd, 2023 release via Libra Records – Satoko Fujii’s Piano Solo – Torrent ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii’s Vibrant New Solo CD Showcases the Full Range of Her Artistry

“Unpredictable, wildly creative, and uncompromising … Fujii is an absolutely essential listen for anyone interested in the future of jazz.” ―Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“Her music can’t get much closer to improvisational music perfection…” —Victor Aaron, Something Else!

16 Mar

[ March the 17th,2023 release via Circum/Libra: Satoko Fujii’s Kaze and Ikue Mori – Crustal Movement ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

The pioneering musician Ikue Mori on laptop electronics joins Kaze – the cooperative quartet featuring Japanese composer-pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura plus French trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer– for their innovative new album Crustal Movement, out March 17, 2023 via Circum/Libra. Album is a visceral, richly textured hybrid of pre-recorded music files exchanged during pandemic and live performance

“[Their music is] a well-judged amalgam of adventurous and empathetic ensemble playing, and striking individual flights,”—John Sharpe, All About Jazz

“So intriguing that you’ll listen to it as music, not noise, and you’ll start to think about the relationship between music and sound and then . . . you’ll be hooked–just as I am.”—Marc Phillips, The Vinyl Anachronist

04 Feb

[ February the 9th, 2023 release via Ayler Records: Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide – Perpetual Motion]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

Two giants of the Japanese avant-garde – pianist Satoko Fujii and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide – meet for the first time on Perpetual Motion, out February 9, 2023 via Ayler Records.

Recorded live at the Pit Inn in Tokyo, the concert was the first time these acclaimed musicians had performed together. There’s an immediate chemistry between these two intrepid shapers of sound.

12 Jul

[ July the 12th, 2022 release on bandcamp exclusive: Natsuki Tamura and Gato Libre – Sleeping Cat ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

“ghostly, poetic sound filling the air with great beauty.” ― Philip Johnson, The Independent

“a fresh approach to improvised music… Adventuresome and rewarding.” — Stuart Kremsky, IAJRC Journal

Trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura’s newest Gato Libre album, Sleeping Cat, is part of an ambitious yearlong marathon of multiple new releases by the Japanese brass player. Available exclusively on Bandcamp

12 Nov

[ November the 19th, 2021 release via Libra Records – Satoko Fujii & Taiko Saito FUTARI Duo – Underground ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

release date: 19.11.2021 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and mallet virtuoso Taiko Saito delve deeper into their duo project with the help of the Internet to make “real, free art”

“The always adventurous pianist-composer teams with vibraphonist Taiko Saito . . . for a beautifully surreal journey.”—Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“Saito and Fujii are one-of-their-kind adventurous and highly imaginative improvisers. It is clear that Fujii found in Saito a musical partner that can navigate her into uncharted sonic territories.”—Eyal Hareumeni, Salt Peanuts

Half a world away from each other, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito recapture the delicate intensity of their duo, Futari, on their new CD, Underground.

09 Nov

[ November the 19th, 2021 release via Libra Records – Satoko Fujii’s This is It! Trio – Mosaic ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

release date: 19.11.2021 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii records live via the internet for the first time with her trio “This Is It!”

“…can’t get much closer to improvisational music perfection” — Victor Aaron, Something Else!

“This project…has lifted her artistry to a new level…. Always fresh, always adventurous.” — Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

12 Sep

[ September the 17th, 2021 release via Libra Records: Satoko Fujii – Piano Music ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

release date: 17.09.2021 via Libra Records

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii’s Bold Experiment with Sound Collage and Prepared Piano

“…magical, unfamiliar sounds that can stimulate your sense of wonder and affect your emotions . . .” — Barry Witherden, Jazz Journal

“Fujii’s music troubles the divide between abstraction and realism. Plucking or scraping the strings of the piano; covering them up as she strikes the keys…. All of this amounts to abstract expressionism, in musical form. But it’s equaled by her rich sense of simplicity, sprung from the feeling that she is simply converting the riches of the world around her into music.”
—Giovanni Russonello, New York Times

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii is often quoted as saying that she “wants to make music no one has heard before.” She more than fulfills that goal on her latest solo album, Piano Music, out September 17 via Libra Records. Using short pre-recorded snippets of her prepared piano music, she edits them together to create a patchwork quilt of unique sonorities. The results are unlike anything she has done before—two extended pieces of otherworldly piano sounds and melodies that evolve so smoothly and organically you can’t tell they’re stitched together from smaller fragments.

02 May

[ May the 7th, 2021 release via Libra Records: Satoko Fujjii’s Tokyo Trio – Moon on the Lake ]

By grzech In All That Jazz / No Comments

release date: 04.05.2021 via Libra Records

“The music rattles the bones as often as it soothes the soul and no composer is more masterful at balancing and grounding those extremes…continually absorbing and unlike anything else.”

– Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

Pianist-composer Satoko Fujii brings together a new piano trio on her latest release Moon on the Lake captured live at Tokyo’s famous jazz venue, Pit Inn. The Tokyo Trio features Fujii with two of the most in-demand younger musicians on the Japanese jazz scene, bassist Takashi Sugawa and drummer Ittetsu Takemura. They form a lithe, quick witted trio, capable of terrific speed and excitement as well as subtle textures and tone colors. Moon on the Lake puts their wide range and capabilities on full display