The Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura & Tatsuya Yoshida Axis

By Eyal Hareuveni

Readers of the blog do not need any introduction to the work of partners in music and life - prolific Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Equally prolific Japanese drummer-bandleader-label owner Tatsuya Yoshida is known for his Ruins-related projects and countless prog-fusion-experimental-polyrhythmic jazz that he leads, his collaborations with Fred Frith, Derek Bailey, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide and John Zorn, his great love to the French prog-zehul band Magma or his ability to condense all the discography of YES into a few minutes medley.

Amanojaku 天邪鬼 - Bishamonten 毘沙門天 (Libra/Magaibutsu, 2024)

Amanojaku (天邪鬼, which can be translated as an antagonistic demon in Japanese folklore) is a new trio of pianist Satoko Fujii, who adds a frightening “death voice” on one piece, her partner, trumpeter-percussionist Natsuki Tamura, and drummer-vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida. Bishamonten 毘沙門天 (Vaisravana, the (guardian god of Buddhism) is the debut album of this trio - released only on Bandcamp as an apéritif before an official album, which was formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, initially as a free improvising band “with a Japanese taste”, but developed into a band that juggles between improvised and composed parts.

The album was recorded live at Tokyo’s Shibuya Koen-dori Classics and Kichijoji Mandala in June and February 2024. Tamura conceptualized the trio's irreverent approach by saying that his songs are “like farts” and Fujii and Yoshida gladly embraced his eccentric vision for Amanojaku. There is certainly an exotic and mysterious Japanese flavor to this band with its hyperactive, hyper-fast, and subversive ritualistic veins, that restlessly keep swinging between the intense and roaring to the lyrical and emotional poles, often within the same pieces. But miraculously, Amanojaku succeeds in choreographing the strong-minded personalities of Fujii, Tamura and Yoshida into wild but balanced, possessed-by-friendly demons dances (and other godly collisions), and making its powerful sound much bigger than that of a trio that plays only acoustic instruments. It ends with the enigmatic, quiet incantations of “Bonnoh”.

Kira Kira - Live (Alister Spence Music, 2024)

Kira Kira extends the ongoing collaboration of Fujii and Tamura with Australian pianist-composer Alister Spence (including duos with Fujii, with Fujii Orchestra Kobe and in the Scottish sax player Raymond MacDonald’s International Big Band). The first incarnation of Kira Kira, documented on Bright Force (Libra, 2018), added drummer Ittetsu Takemura (who plays in Fujii Tokyo Trio). Live, recorded live during a tour of Kira Kira at Shibuya Koen-dori Classics and Jazz Inn Lovely in Nagoya in January 2024, replaced Takemura with Yoshida, who recorded and mixed the music.

Spence plays in Kira Kira the vintage Fender Rhodes with effects pedals and preparations. Fujii also adds preparations to her piano. The atmosphere is more spacious, still hyperactive and dramatic with a vibe of anything-could-happen-anytime but with enough room for distinct, improvised solo roles. Spence’s Fender Rhodes colors the music with fusion flavors and intensifies Fujii piano playing while Tamura and Yoshida push to more energetic edges. Yoshida’s “Vertical Rainbow” highlights his boundless energy and sounds that he is all over the drum set, never letting the music lose its manic, polyrhythmic force. Fujii’s “Bolognaise” shifts from the eccentric-ironic, fragmented and restless commotion, articulated best by Tamura and Yoshida's wordless gibberish, to the contemplative and lyrical, delivered beautifully in Fujii and Tamura's reserved solos, and ends with a powerful coda. Spence’s “Green Energy” begins in a ghostly-mysterious, resonant spirit that patiently spirals and widens its wave-like attacks. Tamura’s “Cat Parade” (he is well known feline lover) is the most playful and uplifting piece here with its propulsive grooves. The album ends with the free improvised “Kite” that cements the strong, collective sound and grooves of Kira Kira.

Satoko Fujii Quartet - Dog Days of Summer (Libra, 2024)

Dog Days of Summer follows the Bandcamp-only, live album of Fujii Quartet - with Tamura, Yoshida and electric bass player Takeharu Hayakawa (a long-time member of reed player Kazutoki Umezu’s Doctor Umezi Band and Kiki Band), After Fifteen Years, Live At Buddy , recorded at Tokyo’s Buddy in July 2023. This quartet, known also as the Vulcan Quartet after its debut album and its bombastic dynamics, released four albums between 2001 and 2007, and surprisingly, became again a working band.

The live album focused on Fujii’s old book of compositions for the quartet. Dog Days of Summer was recorded nine months later at Orpheus Recording Studios in Tokyo in April 2024 and features seven new compositions of Fujii for the now wiser and more experienced quartet that do not attempt to replicate the earlier, fusion-rock dynamics of the quartet. The quartet still has direct, energetic dynamics and still collides the aggressive, powerhouse rhythm section of Yoshida and Hayakawa, with his effects-laden fuzzy bass, and the more understated but no less powerful melodic veins of Fujii and Tamura, but now the quartet plays Fujii’s complex compositions in a more disciplined and tight manner that leaves more room for the strong personalities of the four musicians. Fujii lets Hayakawa become the backbone of the quartet with his muscular yet precise playing (listen to his beautiful solo on the title piece) but wisely choreographs and balances the kinetic rhythm section with the subtle, lyrical solos of her and Tamura, both sound more jazz-oriented than ever. One of the most justified reunions of this century.