Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin

Satoko Fujii – composition & direction
Matthias Schubert – tenor sax
Gebhard Ullmann – tenor sax
Paulina Owczarek – baritone sax
Natsuki Tamura – trumpet
Nikolaus Neuser – trumpet
Lina Allemano – trumpet
Matthias Müller – trombone
Jan Roder – bass
Michael Griener – drumsone
Peter Orins – drums
+ Liz Kosack – synthesizer

Vielseitige „Einflüsse von Klassik über Folklore und Jazz bis Heavy Metal und Punk fließen im Spiel der japanische Avantgarde-Jazz-Pianistin und -Komponistin Satoko Fujii mit überraschenden Verläufen zusammen.
Ihr Spiel bewegt sich irgendwo zwischen Cecil Taylor, Keith Jarrett und Mira Melford.
Sie zählt zu den wichtigsten und vor allem eigenständigsten Exponenten des japanischen Jazz.

Obwohl diese Verortung so auch nicht ganz stimmt. Denn sie pendelte über Jahre hinweg zwischen Japan und New York, seit einiger Zeit zwischen Tokyo und Berlin.

Die vielen Facetten, die sie in immer neuen Projekten und Begegnungen offenlegt, machen sie im positiven Sinne unberechenbar: zwischen freier Improvisation, strenger Formgebung oder einem Rückgriff auf ältere Musikformen – wie etwa den Tango.
Für jede Ausrichtung hat Satoko Fujii ihr eigenes Ensemble.

Satoko Fujii wurde die 2001 von der Jazz Journalist’s Association zum „Best Composer“ auserkoren.
In diesem Zusammenhang ist vor allen ihr Orchester, von dem bereits drei CDs erschienen sind, sehr zu beachten:

Over nearly twenty years of touring and collaborating with some of the world’s most renowned musicians, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii has become a global citizen, evidenced by the orchestras she’s established in several major cities.
With „Ichigo Ichie“, Fujii debuts her first European large ensemble, the Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin.
Based in her newly adopted home city, the Orchestra Berlin joins a roster of improvising big bands based in New York and Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kobe in Japan.

The bulk of „Ichigo Ichie“ is made up of the title piece, a sweeping four-movement work that Fujii composed for the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival.
The title translates roughly as “once in a lifetime,” and is a Japanese idiom associated with tea ceremonies. It is used as a reminder to cherish every meeting, as it will never happen again in exactly the same way.
Fujii chose the title based on the special occasion of the festival and an ensemble chosen expressly for the event, but it’s equally applicable to any performance of the highly spontaneous piece.

“It’s a Japanese philosophy that means we have to treat every moment very importantly,” Fujii explains. “We never know if we’ll meet again or not.
Usually I don’t name a piece before I compose it, but this time was different because I was so inspired.”
Fujii revisited “Ichigo Ichie” when she decided to debut her new Berlin-based orchestra, performing and recording the piece over three frigid winter days in January 2014.

The snow outside doesn’t chill the performance, however, which kicks off with a combustible showcase for drummers Michael Griener and Peter Orins, the latter also Fujii’s bandmate in the collective quartet Kaze.
The band finally enters with a soaring fanfare before fading away again for an entrancing unaccompanied solo from bassist Jan Roder, as the piece continues its contrast between sparse silences and overwhelming ensemble swells.
The second movement boasts an urgent, driving theme spotlighting the agility of the horn section, yielding to a series of inventive, textured interactions among various members of the ensemble. Movement three is more muted, with occasional powerful surges emerging from intense interplay.
The piece’s final section is its most explosive, massing an enormous steamroller of sound from the entire group.
The album closes with “ABCD,” a new piece penned by Fujii in an unusual way.

The score, which uses graphics and instructions to cue improvisation, doesn’t assign parts to specific instrumentalists.
Instead, each part is numbered and chosen by the ensemble members on the day of the performance, guaranteeing fresh interpretations with each new rendition.
The twelve-piece Orchestra Berlin celebrates Fujii’s move to the city in 2011 along with husband, trumpeter, and Orchestra member Natsuki Tamura.

“I like having orchestras in different cities because that kind of diversity can give my music energy,” Fujii says.
“In Europe in general, musicians have excellent technique, because they have a long classical music history and the education is very good.
Also, Berlin is a very international city, so I’m playing with musicians in Berlin but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re German musicians.”
~ label info

satokofujii.bandcamp.com

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