Satoko Fujii And Tokyo Trio To Celebrate New Album With Three Massachusetts Concerts

Japanese pianist/composer Satoko Fujii and her Tokyo Trio stop in Massachusetts for three concerts as part of a spring tour of North America celebrating the March release of Dream a Dream, the ensemble's first studio recording. The trio performances feature Fujii with bassist Natto Maki and drummer Oden.

∙ Sunday, March 30 at Lilypad,1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA.
6–9 p.m. Presented by This Music. Double bill with Spatial Decay. Information at lilypadinman.com.

∙ Monday, March 31 at Institute for the Musical Arts, 165 Cape St., Goshen, MA.
7:30 p.m. Presented by Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares. Tokyo Trio with Natto Maki, bass; Oden, drums. $15. Information at jazzshares.org.
 
∙ Tuesday, April 1 at New England Conservatory, Eben Jordan Ensemble Room, Boston, MA.
2 p.m. Masterclass including performance with Toyko Trio; Natto Maki, bass and Oden, drums. Free. Information at necmusic.edu.
 
The trio's tour also stops in Minneapolis (March 27), Chicago (March 28), Brooklyn (April 2); Toronto (April 4), Ottawa (April 5), Montreal (April 6), and Vancouver (April 8).

After two previous live recordings, pianist-composer Satoko Fujii's Tokyo Trio made their third release, Dream a Dream in the studio. The beautifully detailed recording cements their place as one of the leading piano trios of our time. The players have an innate chemistry that allows them to navigate Fujii's compositions as well as improvise with telepathic unity. It's an unbeatable combination of individual and collective expression that keeps the music always lively and surprising. The album will be released March 28, 2025 via Libra Records.
 
Since they debuted at Tokyo's legendary jazz club, Pitt Inn, in 2019, the trio has devoted itself to perfecting their collective sound. The music on the new album was recorded in the middle of a 2024 European tour, but they had also worked on the material during an earlier tour of Japan. They honed their approach to Fujii's compositions until improvisation and composition co-exist “without borders,” as Fujii puts it. It's a delight to hear how Fujii uses the trio's many resources to create beauty and surprise in a new approach to a familiar jazz combo format.
 
Pianist and composer Satoko Fujii, “an improviser of rumbling intensity and generous restraint” (Giovanni Russonello, New York Times), is one of the most original voices in jazz today. For nearly 30 years, she has created a unique, personal music that spans many genres, blending jazz, contemporary classical, rock, and traditional Japanese music into an innovative synthesis instantly recognizable as hers alone. A composer for ensembles of all sizes and a performer who has appeared around the world, she was the recipient of a 2020 Instant Award in Improvised Music, in recognition of her “artistic intelligence, independence, and integrity.” Frequently cited in the DownBeat Critics' Poll, in 2024, she ranked high in three categories—piano, big band, and arranger.

In 2022, she released Hyaku, One Hundred Dreams her 100th album as a leader. On the way to this impressive milestone, she has led some of the most consistently creative ensembles in modern improvised music, including a piano trio with Mark Dresser and Jim Black (1997-2009). In addition to a wide variety of small groups, Fujii is also a member of the international free-jazz quartet Kaze, which has released seven albums since their debut in 2011. Fujii has established herself as one of the world's leading composers for large jazz ensembles. Fully a quarter of her albums have been with jazz orchestras, prompting Cadence magazine to call her “the Ellington of free jazz.”