Featuring Satoko Fujii on piano, Joe Fonda on contrabass & flute and Gianni Mimmo on soprano sax. Both pianist Satoko Fujii and bassist Joe Fonda should be no strangers to most of you serious listeners. On the other hand, Italian soprano saxist Gianni Mimmo, might be a bit more obscure. He shouldn’t be to those in the know since he runs the Amirani label and has played with Lol Coxhill, Daniel Levin and Stefano Pastor. I would imagine this disc to be mostly improvised. This disc begins with hushed flute, somber soprano sax and eerie plucked strings from inside the piano. The sound is calm, yet haunting, I keep thinking that ghosts will soon enter. There is something beautiful going on here, very organic and rather pure at times. Most of this doesn’t really sound improvised since each section sounds like another scene from an ongoing series of stories. Mr. Mimmo has a superb, warm, thoughtful tone on soprano sax. Never bending his notes too far to prove how far out he can go. The music has a dreamy, enchanting quality which I find most uplifting. I reviewed another Fujii trio disc earlier today called, ‘This Is It!’ and Ms. Fujii sounds completely different. She also never goes too far out but is still most often dazzling. This disc is magical/musical improv at its best!
Bruce Lee Gallanter