Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

SATOKO FUJII’S MA-DO
Whenever pianist-composer Satoko Fujii assembles a new band, it’s a sign that she’s taking off in a new direction. Her new Japanese quartet MA-DO is no exception. Their debut recording, Heat Wave is a stunning display of group sensitivity to tone color, silence, and interaction, as well as finely balanced and nuanced interpretation of composition. “‘Ma-do’ means ‘window’ in Japanese,” Satoko Fujii explains. “Also, ‘ma’ means ‘the silence between notes. I wanted the name of the band to show how the music opens to the outside (just like window) and that silence has probably more meaning than notes.”

In this acoustic setting, the group explores subtle textures and tone colors, using silence and group interaction to build brilliant collages of sound, melody, and rhythm. Fujii broadens her sonic pallet, using the inside of the piano and prepared piano to stunning effect throughout the album. Fujii, who celebrates her 50th birthday in October 2008, has been one of the most original voices in jazz for more than a decade. She is “a virtuoso piano improviser, an original composer and a band-leader who gets the best collaborators to deliver,” says John Fordham in The Guardian (UK). Fujii played in Vooruit before with her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura and Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg and trumpeter Angelo Verploegen.

MARILYN CRISPELL
Marilyn Crispell studied classical piano and composition. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and other contemporary jazz players and composers. For ten years she was a member of several ensembles (Anthony Braxton Quartet, Reggie Workman Ensemble, …). Besides working as a soloist and leader of her own groups, Crispell has performed and recorded music by contemporary composers like John Cage. She always finds the balance between energy and delicate moments of silence: “Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz.” (The New York Times)