Bristling with virtuosity and detail, Katarahi, marks the second duo release by pianists Satoko Fujii and Myra Melford, two artists with a tremendous capacity for invention and improvised storytelling. The title, a Japanese word meaning a heart-to-heart conversation between intimate friends, could hardly better reflect their work here, as they enjoy an equal share of the music-making. Neither is busier nor more commanding than the other. Instead, they integrate their ideas seamlessly, creating textures, motions, and atmospheres that speak directly to their identities as musicians. The pieces on this album were recorded live at Jazzfestival Leibnitz in 2024.
Melford’s “Interlude I” balances volatility and pacification, relying on prepared piano and a four-note motif that continually reshapes…
Tag Archive: Satoko Fujii
With over a hundred album releases in her discography, featuring solo outings and big band bashes and everything in between, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii could be thought to have “done it all.” But there was a missing link. Strings. Though she had recorded in duet outings with violinists Mark Feldman and Carla Kihlstedt, she had never written for or worked with a string ensemble. Always (always, always always) up for a challenge, she convened a group she called GEN, Japanese for string.
The resulting album is titled Altitude 1100 Meters. The inspiration? The air at that 3600-foot location in the highlands of the Nagano prefecture where Fujii summered with her elderly parents to escape the oppressive heat of…