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The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura
CCA Glasgow 350 Sauchiehall St
Friday June 20th 8pm £8/6
Part of The Glasgow International Jazz Festival
Pre concert talk by broadcaster and writer Brian MortonThe Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra continues to play at the forefront of
contemporary music in Scotland, collaborating with the boldest of musical
minds and bodies from around the world. Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura are
two of the most arresting, original and uncompromising musicians in new
jazz; working between New York's downtown scene and Japan with playing that
spans free jazz, Japanese folk idioms and contemporary classical music.
Following sell out GIO performances with George Lewis and Axel Dörner, this
collaboration promises another significant meeting of improvisation giants.
Satoko Fujii has been commissioned to write a new piece for the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. With GIO this means working out a point of departure for collaborative processes rather than producing a finished piece of work. The piece will be an exciting opening for the individual voices in the GIO and for the band to find new ways of becoming an ensemble. Within the forum of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival 2008 this concert presents truly collaborative work featuring international stars working with the finest of Scottish musicians from across the musical genres and beyond.
"Satoko Fujii is one of the more arresting new voices in jazz." - Stuart Broomer, Coda
"Unpredictable, wildly creative, and uncompromising...Fujii is an absolutely essential listen for anyone interested in the future of jazz." - Dan McClenaghan, All About JazzBiography:
SATOKO FUJII is one of the most original voices in jazz. A truly global artist, she splits her time between New York City and Japan and tours internationally leading several different ensembles. Just as her career spans international borders, her music spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical music, and traditional Japanese folk music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone.
“I would like to try many things with my compositions,” she told Don Williamson, “I believe anything can be music … sound colors are as important to me as the melody.”
As an improviser Fujii is wide-ranging and virtuosic. Explosive free jazz energy mingles with delicate melodicism to create a broad palette of timbre and textures. Her phrasing is clean and clear and delivered with a bright, nuanced touch that’s equally indebted to her classical training and her jazz experience. She has showcased her astonishing range and ability on 40 CDs as leader or co-leader since 1996.
Playing the piano from childhood she studied with pianist Fumio Itabashi and in 1985 won a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music. In 1993 she returned to Boston on a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, where her teachers included jazz greats George Russell, Cecil McBee and Paul Bley who was featured on her debut CD Something About Water (Libra; 1996) She has also worked with AACM’s Joseph Jarman, Tatsuya Yoshida from hardcore band Ruins and the Douglas Ewart Ensemble.
As well as her Duo with Natsuki Tamura some of her significant ongoing projects include a classic piano trio (Satoko Fujii Trio) featuring New York stalwarts bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black, and her New York big band (Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York), which she founded in 1997. Additionally she leads three other large ensembles in America and Japan. Her previous work in Scotland includes a performance and a recording (to be released next year) with Tom Bancroft, Raymond MacDonald and Neil Davidson.
Flyer by Sarah Tripp
