June 4-10: Satoko Fujii and Trio SAN European tour

La pianista Satoko Fujii e il trio Sun debuttano in Europa con un tour di 4 date. Ecco i dettagli:

“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

 
It’s been 27 months since pianist-composer Satoko Fujii, one of the most prolific, innovative and active touring performers in jazz, played in Europe. Fujii breaks the long absence with five concerts and the debut of the new ensemble Trio SAN with vibraphonist Taiko Saito and drummer Yuko Oshima. These three exceptional Japanese musicians, both colleagues and friends, create dynamic, persuasive music that transcends boundaries and genre.
 
The trio formed spontaneously as an extension of Futari, the duo featuring Fujii and Saito. An invitation to Oshima to play with them turned their two into three (in Japanese “futari” means two people, and “SAN” means three).

The tour precedes a busy fall for Fujii, featuring the September 20 live NYC performance and recording of her 100th album as a leader, due out in December 2022. The concert and recording will include Fujii, Wadada Leo Smith, Kappa Maki, Ingrid Laubrock, Brandon Lopez, Tom Rainey, Chris Corsano, Ikue Mori and Sara Schoenbeck.
 
Trio SAN dates:
 
∙ Saturday, June 4, 21:00 (9 p.m.) at Sala dei Giganti al Liviano, Padova, Italy. Presented by Centro D’arte. For information visit https://www.centrodarte.it/concerti/2022-06-04-san/.
 
∙ Tuesday, June 7, 20:30 (8:30 p.m.) at Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria. For information visit https://www.porgy.at/events/10972/.
 
∙ Wednesday, June 8, 20:00 (8 p.m.) at Kesselhaus Berlin, Jazzdor Festival, Berlin, Germany. For information visit https://jazzdor.com/berlin-08-06-2022.
 
∙ Friday, June 10, 20:30 (8:30 p.m.) at Jazzinstitute Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. For information visit https://www.jazzinstitut.de/?lang=en.
 
In addition, Fujii will perform a concert featuring music and dance with percussive dancer Mizuki Wildenhahn, trumpeter Kappa Maki and drummer Björn Lücker on Thursday, June 9, 19:30 (7:30 p.m.) at Atelier gauss Ottensen, Hamburg, Germany. For information visit https://tickets.gausz-ottensen.de/web/afisha.

Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. “Across all of Fujii’s work, contradictions come into balance; though her music is abstract and sometimes wild, each element shimmers with clarity,” writes Giovanni Russonello in his New York Times feature article. “In situations large and small, her tender attention to detail is equaled by her ability to convey enormous breadth and textural range.” For more than 25 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 band leader and recording artist, she was the recipient of a 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music in recognition of her “artistic intelligence, independence, and integrity.” She celebrated her 60th birthday in 2018 by releasing one album a month from bands old and new, from solo to large ensemble. Franz A. Matzner in All About Jazz likened the twelve albums to “an ecosystem of independently thriving organisms linked by the shared soil of Fujii's artistic heritage and shaped by the forces of her creativity.”   Over the years, Fujii has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including her trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black and an electrifying avant-rock quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins. Her ongoing duet project with husband Natsuki Tamura released their eighth recording, Keshin, earlier this year. “The duo's commitment to producing new sounds based on fresh ideas is second only to their musicianship,” says Karl Ackermann in All About Jazz.   As the leader of no less than five orchestras in the United States, Germany, and Japan, Fujii has established herself as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, prompting Cadence Magazine to call her “the Ellington of free jazz.” Since 1996, she has released a steady stream of acclaimed albums for jazz orchestras and in 2006 she simultaneously released four big band albums.   When the pandemic forced Fujii to stay home for more than a year, she remained musically active, converting her home practice room into a recording studio and producing her sixth solo album, Hazuki, as well as a duet with Tamura, Keshin. She also collaborated with Ikue Mori in an online duet featured on the recording Prickly Pear Cactus and explored the use of computer editing to shape a solo release, Piano Music.

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