"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. Fujii, bassist Takashi Sugawa, and drummer Ittetsu Takemura 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.

Striking the balance between composition and improvisation is key to the magic of the trio's music. "I know improvised music can be exciting and I might not need to write anything to get good music. But I like writing notes, too," Fujii says. "I like to have these two things together without borders.

"Sometimes I write a lot, but other times I write just a few bars to set the mood," she continues. "For instance, "Dream a Dream" has a long theme that is very much written but then we improvise and I use some parts from the theme to cue a change in the feel. "Summer Day" has very few written parts, but I use them as cues to start the next section. I love composing the structure as well. Solos, duos, and collective sections are very much planned but we always can change them as we listen and play."

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.

The music is further enriched by the personal approach each member brings to the table. "I always love playing with someone who has their own voice," Fujii says. "Takashi and Ittetsu are great improvisers, that means they listen deeply and carefully. Meanwhile, they play and improvise in their own unique way."

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. "Second Step" opens the album with a prime example of the trio's improvised give and take and the impossible-to-predict course charted by Fujii's compositions. Fujii's unaccompanied haunting introduction erupts into waves of crashing notes before she introduces the written theme. But the momentum of the piece is sidetracked by a low, spacious bass solo in which Sugawa etches percussive single notes in silence. A trio improvisation follows, setting up a rapid-fire drum solo that sets up a quirky trio conclusion full of shifting tempos, changing densities, and some of Fujii's most lyrical and elegant piano playing on the album. It's quite a journey.

"Dream a Dream" is an exercise in contrasting moods and unexpected twists. Over the course of the piece, Fujii moves from surreal sounds created inside the piano, through a baroque composed melody, tension-filled irregular phrases, to a rhapsodic conclusion. As the piece evolves, she orchestrates the trio into solo and duet combinations that redirect the flow of the music but maintains an off-balance progress. Sagawa's solo showcases his melodic sense, full tone, and dramatic use of dynamics while Takemura's speed and precision impress during his solo venture.

The trio's collective interplay and dynamic balance of diverse voices highlights "Summer Day." Staccato notes fall like intermittent rain to open "Rain Drop," then develops in unconventional, almost nonlinear, ways as the music ebbs and flows through various combinations of instruments. The title of the final track, "Aruku," means "walk" in Japanese and Fujii wrote it during the pandemic to commemorate the walks that she and husband Natsuki Tamura took together each day. It's a very dynamic piece, with sudden stops, high-contrast changes in direction, and subtle shifts in ensemble balance.

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 also performs in a duo with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, with whom she's recorded nine albums since 1997. She and Tamura are also one half 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."-Libra