Satoko Fujii - Blueprint

All Music Guide

Here's another exciting, if occasionally slightly mystifying, album from one of Japan's most impressive jazz pianists and composers. The program offers plenty to think about: on trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's "Ocha", a Nohinfluenced drum solo gives way to a graduallybuilding group improvisation, which then leads into a more tightlycomposed but rather pointillistic section, followed by more group improvisation. "Anemometer" starts out with an oldfashioned, almost lugubrious lyricism that is only subtly undermined by the strange, slithery bassline; when Fujii's piano comes in everything gets very spiky and forbidding, then the piece lapses into a gently swinging Latin groove before collapsing into borderline chaos. Then the head comes back again. The album's two longest pieces are the gorgeously written "Nagoyanian", which offers some of the richest and most harmonically impressive horn arrangements of the whole program, and "Untitled", which was written in September of 2001 and seems to hav...e been written in a spirit of threnody. Fujii herself gives lots of soloing space to her sidemen, taking relatively few solos and simultaneously keeping the focus on her arrangements and showcasing their formidable chops. To call this music avantgarde wouldn't be exactly accurate, but it is certainly a challenging sort of jazz and not for the faint of heart. Those with ears to hear, though, will find much to enjoy on this album. - Rick Anderson, All Music Guide Read more Less