ALISTER SPENCE / SATOKO FUJII / KIRA KIRA

‘Satoko Fujii…Alister Spence…Kindred spirits in terms of boundless musical interests.’
Karl Ackermann AllAboutJazz

Alister Spence - piano
Satoko Fujii - piano

Spence and Fujii first crossed paths in late 2007 when Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura toured Spence’s native Australia. They immediately struck up a friendship and the two Japanese visitors asked Spence and his trio to join them as guests on their Sydney gig. in 2008, the Alister Spence Trio and the Satoko Fujii Ma-Do quartet shared a double bill at the Tokyo International Jazz Festival. At this time, Fujii also set up the first Fujii/Spence duo piano concerts. Since then, they have revisited the duo format on several occasions including a second Japanese tour in 2016 and another in 2017 during which intelsat was recorded.

intelsat is a meeting of two very unconventional minds. Satoko Fujii and Alister Spence (on Fender Rhodes for this recording) both have an insatiable thirst for new sounds and dauntless courage to follow their fertile imaginations where it leads them. This debut duo album goes places few other musicians venture while keeping listeners hooked with compelling rhythms inviting tone colours and surprise touches of lyrical beauty.

Their second piano duo album Any News released in 2021, was recorded over the internet between Kobe, Japan and Sydney, Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic.

KIRA KIRA
In 2017, Spence and Fujii formed a new project Kira Kira with trumpeter Natsuki Tamura. Kira Kira’s first performance was at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival 2017 with Tony Buck on drums. Their debut album Bright Force (Libra Records) was recorded at Knuttelhouse in Tokyo in September 2017, featuring extraordinary Japanese drummer Ittetsu Takemura. Bright Force has received consistently strong reviews. Their second album Kira Kira Live (2024) features Japanese drumming force Tatsuya Yoshida. Kira Kira has toured in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, US, Europe, UK.

Alister has also performed with the Satoko Fujii Orchestras (Nagoya, Kobe, Tokyo) and teamed up with the Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe to record the album, Imagine Meeting You Here - a five -part composition for improvising orchestra by Alister Spence. Released in 2019 on Alister Spence Music, Dustin Krcatovich said in DownBeat ‘…composer Alister Spence takes full advantage of the possibilities afforded by pianist Satoko Fujii's improvising big band, Orchestra Kobe, and the results are pretty exhilarating’.