Satoko Fuji Quartet

“Zephyros” (NatSat)

The Satoko Fuji Quartet kicks off this recording like a pile driver on “The Future of the Past,” setting up an enormous tension beautifully released when the players drop out and Fuji is left alone on piano to play lyrically and with great passion and imagination. Bassist Takeharu Hayakawa picks things up with a very pianistic solo, around which Fuji, drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura lay down atmospherics. The quartet does a remarkable job of carving out three-dimensional space on Fuji’s compositions, which are really dramatic song-poems or symphonies written in miniature and played with the heft of a hardcore punk-rock band. Think Cecil Taylor meets Rage Against the Machine. [ 4/18/04 ]


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