Readers may recall that, this past March, jazz pianist Satoko Fujii released Hazuki, a solo piano album that she recorded in her own home under lockdown conditions this past August. This was followed, at the beginning of last month, by Keshin, a “duo lockdown album,” which Fujii recorded with her husband, Natsuki Tamura. Today marks the release of Moon on the Lake, a trio album, which she recorded in September of last year with Ittetsu Takemura on drums and bassist Takashi Sugawa. As of this writing, the album appears to be available only through the CD Store Web page on the Libra Records Web site.
For the most part this album offers some highly energetic jamming. All five of the tracks were composed by Fujii; and only the title track, which is the last of them, settles into more lyrical reflection. That lyricism is reinforced by Sugawa switching from bass to cello. As I become more familiar with the Fujii discography, I find that I continually fall back on adjectives such as “exploratory” and “engaging.” I also still direct my focus toward “attentive listeners.”
Fujii tracks are decidedly not for “casual listening;” and they definitely to not deserve to be relegated to “background!” Rather, these are performances in which every detail has its own contribution to make. The good news is that the recording quality is sufficiently high to allow those attentive listeners to track all three of the performers, both in what they create through their respective instruments and how each creative gesture has its own way of engaging with those of the other players.
As I have written about past albums, the act of listening to any track is a journey of discovery.
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