Fujii Releases Final Orchestral Album of the Year

The members of the Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo with Fujii “front and center” (courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz)

Exactly one week ago, Libra Records released Kappa Ondo, the fifth and final orchestra album of music performed by the Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo. The overall duration is a little bit short of 78 and a half minutes, which is divided between two CDs on the “physical” release. However, the best site for the album in the United States is the Bandcamp Web page, from which all six tracks of the album may be released through digital download.

Here in the United States, we would be more inclined to describe the “orchestra” as a big band. Instrumentation is provided by four saxophones (two alto, the first doubling on soprano, tenor, and baritone), four trumpets, and one trombone, with rhythm provided by bass and drums. Two of the tracks are composed by Fujii, three by trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, and one by Tamura’s father, Ichiji Tamura. Sonorities frequently go beyond listener expectations for both trumpet and saxophones; and they are particularly inventive on the second track “Karasu” (crow). The sonorities on that track take both alto saxophone (Kunihiro Izumi) and trumpet (Takao Watanabe) to new auditory domains.

As a faithful viewer of The Mickey Mouse Club, I always looked forward to Wednesday, which was “Anything Can Happen Day.” This is how I approach every new release involving Fujii and those sailing under her flag, particularly Natsuki Tamura, who is her husband! To say that “things get really wild” on their new Kappa Ondo album would be verging on understatement! To invoke an epithet familiar to regular readers, this is a “bleeding edge” album that is engaging from beginning to end. Furthermore, as one familiar with many felines, I was particularly drawn to Tamura’s composition “Noraneko,” which is Japanese for “stray cat!”