Tracklist:
1. Heat Wave [5:31]
2. Beyond The Horizon [8:59]
3. Mosaic [7:22]
4. Ring A Bell [6:59]
5. Tornado [6:45]
6. The Squall In The Sahara [7:24]
7. Amoeba [5:02]
8. Spiral Staircase [4:26]
9. To The Skies [3:04]

Recorded and mixed on April 19, 2008 by Katsumi Shigeta
Assisted by Tomomi Baba at Epicurus Studios, Tokyo
Mastered on July 7, 2008 by Randy Merrill at Scott Hull Mastering, NY
Photo by Masayo Nabeshima
Cover design by Masako Tanaka

Personnel:
Satoko Fujii - piano
Natsuki Tamura - trumpet
Norikatsu Koreyasu - bass
Akira Horikoshi - drums

QUOTE

Ever prolific avant-garde jazz pianist Satoko Fujii has put together yet another band. She fronts numerous ensembles: a dynamic piano trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black, the trio Junk Box, with drummer Jim Hollenbeck and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, big bands in New York and Japan, a powerful rock steeped quartet and a bunch of one-off configurations, in addition to her collaborations with husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura-most notably as an accordionist on the three Gato Libre discs. Heat Wave, the debut release from Fujii's new quartet, Satoko Fujii Ma-Do, features an approach that focuses more on her written music and less on improvisation. "Ma-Do" means window in Japanese, while "ma" refers to the silence between notes. Fujii says: "I wanted to name the band to show how the music opens to the outside (just like a window) and that silence has probably more meaning than notes." Satoko Fujii Ma-Do's take on the Fujii sound is more spacious than that of her rock quartet, but is also unmistakably Fujii-esque. Unexpected twists and turns, in-your-face and pedal-to-the-metal wailing juxtapose with spare, mystical, pastoral beauty. Tamura mixes straight-ahead trumpet blowing with strange and unearthly horn sounds-sirens and frog croaks and flatulence, creaking hinges and the fluttering of wings. Group interaction is often nuanced with the occasional old European tinge, perhaps a holdover from the Gato Libre sessions. It seems every cut features a passage of tumultuous intensity with the band breaking into semi-choreographed fist fights served up in idiosyncratic Satoko Fujii fashion. Satoko Fujii says, "I would love to make music that no one has heard before." She's done that many times over and she does it again with Heat Wave. (by Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz) After releasing new recordings with her jazz trio (Trace a River) and her improv trio Junk Box (Cloudy Then Sunny) in the first half of 2008, Satoko Fujii kicked off the second half of that year with Heat Wave, the first CD by her new project Ma-Do. Although marketed as a "new direction" for the pianist, Ma-Do will not surprise or puzzle any of Fujii's fans. This quartet is simply more composition-based than her long-lasting trio with Mark Dresser and Jim Black, yet less "in your face" than her quartet featuring drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. There is very little improvising going on on Heat Wave, the focus being put on through-written compositions. Free improvising and textural playing are kept to a minimum, except in "Amoeba," where it sums up the piece. So you get more melodies for your buck, if that's what you're after. Otherwise, the compositions on this album are typical - and premium - Fujii: angular, hammered piano motives, aerial airs, progressive tunes bridging the gap between Rock in Opposition and avant-jazz. Highlights include the punchy title track, the complex "Mosaic," "The Squall in the Sahara" and its unexpected twists and turns, and the soulful "Beyond the Horizon," whose opening theme is strongly reminiscent of a soft passage in one of Magma's epics. The first half of the album is pretty strong, with the quartet (Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, acoustic bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu, drummer Akira Horikoshi) driving the music with conviction and a certain rock attitude, despite their resolutely jazz-based instrumentation. The second half loses a bit of steam, with the free-form "Amoeba" letting the album grind to a near-halt - not that it is a bad structured improvisation, but it feels out of place here. Luckily, "Spiral Staircase" resets everything by delivering one of those complex anthems Fujii is best known for. Heat Wave may not be quite as strong as Trace a River (if you had to pick only one Fujii release from 2008), but it still makes a very fine, rather sunny and accessible listen. A good number of these tracks deserve some serious live playtime. (by François Couture, AMG) As her fiftieth birthday nears, pianist Satoko Fujii continues to release recordings at a furious pace. However, despite always extending her compositional and improvisational language, her musical personality remains recognizable by its unique mixture of melody, rhythm, freedom and structure. An amazing release, Heat Wave presents a new band named the Ma-Do Quartet, consisting of players from other bands which Fujii has played in or led trumpeter Natuski Tamura, Fujii's husband and musical collaborator; bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu, a member of Tamura's band Gato Libre; and drummer Akira Horikoshi, a member of Fujii's Tokyo Big Band. This band and its music sounds like a conscious summation of Fujii's most recent efforts in both composition and performance. Elegantly fused are the qualities of Fujii's other Japanese quartet, in its power and intensity; her Junk Box trio with Tamura and percussionist John Hollenbeck, in its use of unconventional compositions requiring the musicians to give them import; her American trio with bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black, for their pure improvisatory prowess; and Tamura's Gato Libre, for its delightfully surprising and touching melodies. This synthesis sounds entirely natural, and is represented by the quartet's name of "ma-do," which means "window" in Japanese, with "ma" also meaning the "silence between the notes." What Fujii is getting at with this name is not only that this music "opens to the outside," but also that listeners can see its insides, as the players negotiate the notation and react to it. This music has an exquisite liveliness. It literally breathes, changing shape, texture and color continuously while it develops. The excitement created is palpable as the quartet reacts to what is written, with the result being three-dimensional structures of avant-garde classical grace that mutate, turning on a dime into heavy funk or literally exploding. While Fujii relates that she is writing more and more, and that she needed musicians who could work from a written score, the only obviously composed parts here are those when a difficult line is played in unison. The gallery of sounds that Fujii imagined and scored is astounding. She takes great advantage not only of Tamura's advanced techniques of moans and screams, but also his softer, Gato Libre side. Koreyasu and Horikoshi are locomotives one second, only to drop to shimmering cymbals and arco groans at another. Around, under, and through everything, Fujii displays her enormous range of piano playing, from the ferocious to the picturesque. She also uses the inside of the piano extensively, producing sounds that blend exceedingly well with Tamura and the others, as in a section near the end of "Beyond The Horizon." Aurally stunning, complex and yet deeply and emotionally involving, Heat Wave is a new high for Fujii. She has created, and continues to extend, her own sound world. (Budd Kopman, All About Jazz) Another quartet with Satoko Fujii, now called "Ma-Do", and she is accompanied by her husband Natsuki Tamura on trumpet, Norikatsu Koreyasu on bass and Akira Horikoshi on drums. Despite her regular changes in bands and line-ups, her music is usually easy to identify : structured, rhythmically challenging, thundering, powerful, wild and sensitive with even a touch of sentimentality and aesthetic beauty. And it's no different on this CD : the approach is total, not only as a broad synthesis of jazz (and modern classical and Japanese folk music), but also as a venture into new territory, with lots of extended techniques, pushing the envelope while keeping a clear focus and coherence in the playing. It's also total because it's cerebral in its structure and concept, emotional in its delivery, evocative in its almost visual imagery, brilliant in its execution, free in its evolution and interplay, compelling because of its variety and intensity, physical in the performance ... but also for the effect it has on this guy. Just listen to the two consecutive tracks of "Mosaic" and "Ring A Bell". Both start with bass, the first plucked, the second arco. The first track moves into adventurous territory, with Fujii playing her piano strings directly, with Tamura screeching in his trumpet, when the quartet suddenly moves into a highly rhythmic, almost fusion-like unison theme, setting the basis for further improvisation. "Ring A Bell" starts with Tamura playing solo trumpet, sounding almost klezmer in scale and melancholy, making his instrument wail and weep with pain and agony, wonderfully supported by the arco bass, moving into rhythmic down tempo world jazz, with the trumpet deepening the emotional expressivity into some hair-raising moments. "Tornado" by contrast is wild as its title suggests, with crashing piano, shouting trumpet, moving into a percussion-driven part with the piano taking the lead, full of drama and menacing sounds, ... and then it changes again and again ... impossible to describe, as on "The Squall In The Sahara", the track starts in an incredibly accessible soft and sentimental way, but gradually moves into highly rhythmic, almost raw and pounding, thundering music, building up to a crescendo, including the almost circus-like percussive tension-builder, back to theme, slowing down for the bass solo, ending again in full sentimentality and beautiful theme. But whatever it is that you hear on the album, it is intense, clever and full of passion. As said earlier, Fujii is something else and her music, regardless of the line-up, is not to be missed. (freejazz-stef.blogspot.com) Heat Wave is the fourth record released in 2008 featuring the prolific and talented Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii. In honor of her 50th birthday, she organized an intensive release schedule, issuing three albums so far on her Libra imprint, including Trace a River with her veteran trio featuring bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Jim Black, Cloudy Then Sunny with the collective trio Junk Box, as well as appearing on her husband trumpeter Natsuki Tamura's recent Gato Libre album, Kuro. Ma-Do is Fujii's newest ensemble, specifically chosen to interpret her heavily notated compositions. An intimate acoustic quartet with a vast dynamic range, this line-up lacks the electronic excess of her more rock oriented quartet and eschews the open-ended excursions favored by her longstanding trio in favor of thematically concise improvisations. Fujii is once again joined by Tamura; from intimate duos to big band settings, their empathetic rapport has developed over the years to virtually telepathic levels. Their rhythm section consists of bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu, from Tamura's Gato Libre ensemble and drummer Akira Horikoshi, courtesy of Fujii's Tokyo big band. Fujii regularly breaks the quartet into trio, duo and solo formations, which allows space for her compositions to breathe, as they veer from ghostly serenity to vibrant expressionism. Fujii's knack for writing infectious harmonic counterpoint, staggered polyrhythms and interlocking arrangements is exemplified by the spirited interplay of the dramatic title track and the pseudo-baroque "Spiral Staircase." A diverse stylist, Fujii's full range of expression, from romantic neo-classicism to strident angularity comes to the fore. A perfect foil, Tamura's own contributions range from mellifluous contours to coarse fragments. Navigating these episodic compositions, the rhythm section alternates between supple accents and funky downbeats. A wide range of tonal colors are expressed with extended techniques on "Beyond The Horizon" and "Amoeba." On the later tune, Fujii plays directly on the strings of her piano to harp-like effect, Tamura blows ghostly howls and Koreyasu bows sonorous harmonics while Horikoshi scatters scintillating accents, all unified by the specter of a melancholy melody. "Mosaic" and "The Squall In The Sahara" demonstrate the ensembles dynamic potential, as they build from lush lyricism to harrowing angularity, while the aptly titled "Tornado" summons a vortex of blustery turbulence. The group even embarks on a Middle Eastern travelogue on "Ring A Bell," conjuring exotica-tinged modality. The lilting anthem "To The Skies" provides a final reminder of Fujii's tuneful capabilities as Koreyasu bows coarse long tones accompanied by Fujii's dulcet piano filigrees while Tamura plies tender refrains, closing the album on a bittersweet note. Another superlative recording from Satoko Fujii, Heat Wave is a perfect introduction to the work of one of today's most vital composers. (Troy Collins, All About Jazz)

SPOILER!

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Extractor: Exact Audio Copy v0.99pb3
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Total Time: 55:36
Ripper: SurowyTato