She gives her players plenty of room to improvise, opening the avenues to a welter of ideas. In doing so she enriches her compositions. There is a spontaneous empathy between them and they pick, feed and extend ideas in seamless fashion. Fujii records with musicians from Japan and the United States. One CD is the realm of her Japanese band, the other the domain of her American outfit.
Some tunes are common to both, but with discernable differences.
Subtleties apart, it is the compositions that blood the music. Perhaps the secret of her success lies in this. Over the last three or four years when I compose, I don't use any rules or theory. I just try to find the right notes for me. All About Jazz and contributing writers.