Angelona

BIOGRAPHY SATOKO FUJII Fujii is clearly one of the most exciting musicians to come along in a while. - Robert Iannapollo, Cadence \'Unpredictable, wildly creative, and uncompromising...

Fujii is an absolutely essential listen for anyone interested in the future of jazz.\' - Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz 100 Years...100 Alumni - Profiling New England Conservatory's Most Successful Alumni Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer SATOKO FUJII as one of the most original voices in jazz today. A truly global artist, she splits her time between New York and Japan and tours internationally leading several ensembles. Just as her career spans international borders, her music spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical music, rock, and traditional Japanese music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone. Her wide-ranging compositions can incorporate the simple melodies of folk song, the harmonic sophistication of jazz, the rhythmic power of rock, and the extended forms of symphonic composers. Although Fujii's compositions are full of sudden shifts in direction and mood, the extremes are always part of a greater conceptual whole. As an improviser, Fujii is equally wide-ranging and virtuosic. In her solos, explosive free jazz energy mingles with delicate melodicism and a broad palette of timbre and textures. She has showcased her astonishing range and ability on over 50 CDs as leader or co-leader since 1996. With each new recording or new band, she explores new aspects of her art. Born on October 9, 1958 in Tokyo, Japan, Fujii began playing piano at four and received classical training until twenty, when she turned to jazz. From 1985-87, she studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music, where her teachers included Herb Pomeroy and Bill Pierce. She returned to Japan for six years before returning to the US to study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where her teachers included George Russell, Cecil McBee, and Paul Bley, who appeared on her debut CD Something About Water (Libra, 1996). Since then Fujii has founded and led numerous ensembles, ranging from duos to big bands. Her New York trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black has released six critically acclaimed CDs. \'Her most substantial and musically rewarding small group outing to date,\' wrote Glenn Astarita of their third release, Toward 'To West' in All About Jazz. Besides all of the purposeful soloing, sinuous flow and hard-edged musings, Ms. Fujii injects a potpourri of underlying themes and fluctuating cross-currents into her music.\' In 2004 trumpeter/husband Natsuki Tamura joined this trio to form the Satoki Fujii Four, which released the critically acclaimed Live in Japan 2004 and 2006's When We Were There. In 2001 came the radically different Vulcan (Libra Records), an avant-rock/free jazz-fusion album by a new group, the Satoko Fujii Quartet featuring Tatsuya Yoshida of the Japanese avant-rock duo, The Ruins. Each of the Japanese quartet's four albums, including Zephyros (Polystar, 2004) and Angelona (Libra, 2006), has received enthusiastic approval. \'The sensibility here is aggressive to the point of primitive, said Bill Bennett in JazzTimes. Vulcan is ... a masterpiece of jazz expression. Fujii founded two big bands in 1996 and 1997, one in New York City and the other in Tokyo. Each band appeared on one CD of the unique two-disc set, Double Take (EWE, 2000). I have learned to appreciate how they are different, Fujii said in a jazzreview.com interview with Don Williamson, I think the Japanese free jazz players have a very strong influence from the '60s free jazz scene in America. They have a lot of energy, and when they play, they like to show that. Many times, their expression is very aggressive in a good way. New York Downtown musicians have strong influence from many kinds of music, like contemporary music, world music, and jazz. They also have great energy in a different way. The New York big band has released six CDs to date including 2006's Undulation which was one of four bi