Satoko Fujii is a rare visionary in the broadly-defined field of jazz where she is not only a brilliant composer, bandleader and pianist, but she produces brilliance in torrents, not in spurts. She debuted as a leader in 1996, and has made ninety-nine more records over the next twenty-six years. Fujii is commemorating release #100 with a special album, Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams.
It can be said that every single one of Fujii’s one hundred records is a new leap into the unknown, even when she is leading a group that’s a going concern. She’s helmed many duos, trio, quartets…all the way up to three distinct large orchestras, as well as recorded several solo piano albums. Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams is a little bit of an anomaly in a career full of anomalies in that for here, she’s leading an intermediate-sized band. This unusually-configured nine-piece ensemble features four horns (Ingrid Laubrock, tenor sax; Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon; Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet; Natsuki Tamura, trumpet), two drum kits (Tom Rainey and Chris Corsano), bass (Brandon Lopez), electronics (Ikue Mori) and of course, Fujii’s piano.
Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams is in many ways, the distillation of Fujii’s artistry that is to be expected. She has always created surprise, anticipation, confrontation and serenity employing a deft mixture of stellar solo performances with group dynamics along with sophisticated charts mingling with supple spontaneity and odd but ingenious alchemy of instruments used in unexpected ways. She has so many tools at her disposal and she knows just how to use them all.
“Part One” opens with Satoko Fujii alone, quietly, as Mori, Rainey and Corsano unobtrusively usher themselves in without a lot of fanfare, but the fire builds slowly and Schoenbeck is the first to take the spotlight from Fujii nearly six minutes in, a soliloquy that exemplifies how Schoenbeck is redefining the bassoon. Rainey and Corsano follow with the next showcase, another one of Fujii’s trademark unconventional moves, but also quite natural as the two extend from the rumble they’ve been making up to this point and continue to do so after the full force of the horns blast out the formal introduction of a theme only at the conclusion of this part.
With so much virtuosity arrayed at the trumpet chairs it would be only a matter of time before Fujii gave Smith and Tamura their turns to display that, and it starts right at the start of “Part Two”. Smith’s solemness in space is one of his superpowers, here on full display and bolstered by Fujii as usual setting the perfect sterile backdrop for it. Lopez follows with bowed bass prowess, one that gets low and thrashes about in the mud.
“Part Three” starts with Laubrock taking center stage, but fortified by spitfire bass and double drums; eventually, those other horns jump into the mosh pit, forming a hurricane swirling around the saxophone. Afterwards, the lines between composition and improvisation are distorted beyond recognition, with individual contributions crossing over group improv and back across again. No one can pull that off that sort of loosely guided chaos so successfully like Satoko Fujii.
Mori’s space-age electro-effects play a major role during “Part Four,” whose presence points up to Fujii’s embrace of technology, an embrace that doesn’t use technology as a crutch but simply another tool in her tool box used to achieve the desired presentation. Into the sonic void left by the electronics are first piercing horn blasts and a brief, full-band procession. And then comes the colorful, often witty character of a trumpet that can only come from the breaths of Tamura.
As we head toward conclusion on “Part Five,” the band members unite briefly on another motif and soon afterwards, Fujii’s piano becomes a focal point as in the beginning. It serves as an interlude involving Schoenbeck that in the course of time beckons everyone else to enjoin her, playing the prior motif this time powered by the impulsive dual drums. The whole “One Hundred Dreams” suite culminates with a bang.
Satoko Fujii presents so many facets of musical genius that makes it difficult to encapsulate on a single record. But in celebrating and looking back on such a productive career, we may finally have a good starting point with Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams.
Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams is due for release December 9, 2022 from Libra Records.
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