“As Toh-Kichi, Tatsuya and I played together even after our
last album, Erans, came out in 2004, but not regularly,” Fujii says. “This
time, we were asked by an organizer to play a concert in Hiroshima. We wanted
to play some new repertoire, so we both composed new pieces for Toh-Kichi. We
made a short tour after Hiroshima and we decided to record our new compositions
since we had so much fun playing together again!”
And really, for all its avant-garde trappings, Toh-Kichi is
a lot of fun. Fujii and Yoshida egg one another on, daring each other to take
chances and rising to the occasion every time. The music may zig and zag in
many directions, melodies may explode into pure sound or clashing dissonance,
but it is all a high-spirited good time, an excess of joie de vivre. For
instance, Yoshida’s “Aspherical Dance,” a melodic framework that suggests areas
in which to improvise without limiting options, brims with exuberant energy and
even the dissonant tornados of piano notes and percussion aren’t menacing, but
more like outbursts of pure joy. On Fujii’s “Baikamo,” Yoshida’s unexpected
stops and starts create an asymmetric landscape over which Fujii bubbles and
flows with rippling phrases buoyed by percussive chords. Sparks fly on
Yoshida’s “Climber’s High” as Fujii, playing the piano like 88 tuned drums, and
Yoshida, unleashing rapid fire melodic rhythms, clash and interact. “Ice Age”
is one of the most evocative tone poems Fujii has ever recorded, featuring
eerie vocalizing from both Yoshida and Fujii, as she elicities otherworldly
drones and sparkling plucked notes from inside the piano.
In addition to debuting their new compositions, Fujii and
Yoshida also engage in eight free improvisations, each one distinctive and
daring. On “Ajhisakdafitch” (Yoshida gave each improv its unique title), Fujii
creates unusual timbres on prepared piano, which Yoshida matches with his own
colorful responses. They shadow one another in an amazing display of their
intuitive connection. “Ovgwebkwum” grows slowly out of strange rattles and
hums, as if they are not sure where they’re going, but they are enjoying the
journey. “Zpajigemfluxss” overflows with energy. They pick up ideas from one
another, then blow them apart, start from a new antic rhythmic melody and bat
it around between them.
“I think he is musically very unique,” Fujii says of
Yoshida. “He has his own voice and he has no hesitation about making music with
his own thoughts and feelings. I believe that is the most important thing for a
musician to do. I always respect creators who follow their own voices and don’t
imitate others.”
Drummer Tatsuya Yoshida has been called the “indisputable
master drummer of the Japanese underground” and a “rhythm section gone
ballistic.” Best known as a founding member of the progressive-rock drums +
bass duo, The Ruins, he has also been a member of influential zeuhl bands such
as Koenjihyakkei, Akaten, and Korekyojinn. In addition to being an occasional
member of John Zorn’s legendary jazzcore band PainKiller, he has collaborated
with other notable experimentalists such as Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Keiji
Haino, Otomo Yoshihide, and Richard Pinhas, among many others. Yoshida also
tours and records extensively as a solo artist.
Critics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko
Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano
improviser, an original composer and a bandleader who gets the best
collaborators to deliver," says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert
and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader, she synthesizes jazz,
contemporary classical, avant-rock, and folk music into an innovative style
instantly recognizable as hers alone. A prolific band leader and recording
artist, 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 sixth recording, Kisaragi, in 2017. “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. Aspiration, a CD by
an ad hoc quartet featuring Wadada Leo Smith, Tamura, and Ikue Mori, was
released in 2017 to wide acclaim. “Four musicians who regularly aspire for
greater heights with each venture reach the summit together on Aspiration,”
writes S. Victor Aaron in Something Else. As the leader of no less than five
orchestras in the U.S., Germany, and Japan (two of which, Berlin and Tokyo,
released new CDs in 2018), Fujii has also established herself as one of the
world’s leading composers for large jazz ensembles, leading Cadence magazine to
call her, “the Ellington of free jazz.”
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