is a Japanese
avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...
pianist, accordionist and composer.
Early life
Fujii was born in Tokyo on 9 October 1958.
[Huey, Stev]
"Satoko Fujii"
AllMusic. Retrieved 9 February 2016. She started playing the piano at age 4, receiving classical training until she was 20,
when she became interested in improvisation and jazz. In her twenties, she received instruction in jazz from pianist
Fumio Itabashi in Tokyo.
Later life and career
Fujii went to the United States in 1985, graduating from the
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...
in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
in 1987, returning to the US in 1993,
achieving a graduate diploma in Jazz Performance from the
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...
in 1996. While at the Conservatory, she also had lessons with pianist
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...
, "which consisted largely of conversation over cappuccinos,
ndeased her toward self-expression."
In 1996, their duo album, ''Something About Water'', was released; Fujii commented that it was a major event for her: "I started to accept myself, little by little."
She returned to Japan with her new husband, trumpeter
Natsuki Tamura, leader of
Gato Libre. She leads various
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
s in Japan, such as
Orchestra Tokyo. She established Orchestra New York in 1997.
Around 2007, the quartet ma-do was created, consisting of Fujii, Tamura, bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu and drummer Akira Horikoshi. In 2010, Fujii co-founded Kaze, a group containing herself, Tamura, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins. She has played accordion on recordings by the band established by Tamura, Gato Libre, including ''DuDu'' and ''Kuro''.
Fujii has recorded prolifically: between 1996 and 2009 she released more than 40 albums.
[Panken, Ted (April 2009) "Satoko Fujii/Natsuki Tamura – Chun". ''Down Beat''. p. 76.] In 2018, she released an album every month to celebrate turning 60.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fujii and Tamura have been releasing albums recorded in their home studio on Bandcamp on a regular (monthly or bi-monthly) basis.
In December 2022, Fujii released the 100th album under her own name, auspiciously entitled “Hyaku One Hundred Dreams”.
Playing style
The ''Down Beat'' reviewer of ''Under the Water'', a piano duet album with
Myra Melford, stated that "Fujii varies dynamics widely, jump-cutting from a fierce, free barrage to a sprinkle of single, crystalline notes."
[Hale, James (September 2009) "Global Keys". ''Down Beat''. p. 69.]
Discography
References
External links
Official websiteSatoko Fujii's MySpace pageSatoko Fujii interview at allaboutjazz.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujii, Satoko
Avant-garde jazz pianists
Berklee College of Music alumni
Free jazz pianists
Japanese jazz composers
Japanese jazz pianists
Living people
1958 births
21st-century Japanese pianists
Leo Records artists
21st-century Japanese women pianists