Composer-pianist Satoko Fujii's new Orchestra Berlin, a ten-piece ensemble, presents a powerful work written specifically for this group in thought-provoking compositions of and uninhibited energy, with performers including saxophonists Gebhard Ullmann, Paulina Owczarek & Matthias Schubert, trombonist Matthias Muller, bassist Jan Roder, and drummers Peter Orins and Michael Griener.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2018 Country: Japan Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold Recorded at Zentri-fuge, in Berlin, Germany, on April 2nd, 2017, by Ti To.
"On Ninety-Nine Years, composer-pianist Satoko Fujii premieres her first compositions written expressly for Orchestra Berlin. The ten-piece ensemble responds with a full-throated, buoyant performance that makes the album one of the most exciting in her large catalog of big band releases.
Fujii convened Orchestra Berlin in 2015 to record Ichigo Ichie, a commission from the Chicago Jazz Festival, written for and originally performed by a ten-piece ensemble of Chicago musicians. Fujii, who was living in Berlin at the time, wanted to record the piece, so she asked German saxophonist Gebhard Ullmann, for whom she'd written arrangements heard on his 2004 Soul Note CD, Big Band Project, to put together a group to record her new composition. She had never heard or played with most of them. "I really didn't know how they would play together or how the music would sound," Fujii says. "I didn't expect them to play so hot, with so much energy."
Although composer-conductor and orchestra hadn't worked together before, they clicked immediately. In his 4-star review of the album in All About Jazz, Budd Kopman wrote, "This is edge-of-the-seat music that has a palpable central line of energy flowing through it... frequently astonishing in its impact..."
"Their sound made me want to write this project," Fujii says. "I probably wouldn't have written these pieces if I hadn't done Ichigo Ichie with them."
On Ninety-Nine Years, Fujii digs deep to bring out the special character of the band and its soloists. Her compositions call on the uninhibited energy of the group and leave plenty of room for soloist to contribute their own ideas. Her insightful conducting heightens the drama of each piece, setting off both writing and improvising to best effect.
The album opens with "Unexpected Incident" (the Japanese government's euphemism for the Fukushima nuclear disaster), a showcase for the band in all its bold, energized glory. The composition features the steamrolling power of the band's tenor saxophonists, with Ullmann plowing ahead over the ensemble early in the piece, Matthias Schubert locked in a fierce duet with trombonist Matthias Müller, and concludes with Ullman's growling, raving unaccompanied solo.
In an unaccompanied solo, bassist Jan Roder opens "Ninety-Nine Years," a dedication to Fujii's late mother-in-law, with his strong sense of line and development. Drummers Peter Orins and Michael Griener and baritone saxophonist Paulina Owczarek enter one by one, building to an ebbing and flowing collective improvisation. Then Ullmann once again powers up, launching long flexing lines that erupt into contoured waves of pure sound. Fujii cues in an affecting, melancholy melody from the ensemble, contrasting sorrow and compassion with Ullmann's unquenchable vitality.
The percussionists display their close rapport and command of rhythm, groove, and texture in duets at the beginning of "On the Way," before trumpeter Natsuki Tamura lightens the mood with a hilarious solo utilizing vocal sounds and odd-ball mutterings.
Tamura suggested the title of "Oops," whose tricky rhythms initially gave the horn players problems. Schubert once again brings excitement and grandeur to the proceeding in his wild, almost operatic solo. "Follow the Idea" brings the album to a close with another burst of white hot energy and wild swings between dead serious intensity and high-spirited humor.
Most jazz composers work with one orchestra over time, but Fujii maintains no less than five. Each one has its distinct character, which she loves to explore. Fujii returned to Orchestra Berlin because, she says, "I think they bring out some part of me that the other bands don't." "-Libra
Includes a 6 page color booklet with text in English and Japanese.