Past Life

by Tom SchulteSatoko Fujii approaches jazz from the cultural perspective of an Asian. The prolific artists again release two albums together. Recorded in Japan, Past Life features her all-Japanese sextet that has worked on collective improvisation since forming in 1996. The instrumentation backing Fujii at the piano is trumpet, saxophones, trombone, bass, and drums. Their hyper-voodoo coloring of organically evolving themes is exciting and magical. Very avant-garde and unhindered by Western notions of tonality and structure, Fujii's music pushes the envelope in all directions. This is her seventh recording since 1996. Fujii continues advancing the sophistication in her alchemic mix of jazz, classical music, and traditional Japanese folk motifs. Not entirely improvised, the sextet performs intricate scores composed by Fujii and features in performance wild musical fantasies led by Fujii's husband, trumpeter Natuski Tamura.