Sinsuke Fujieda Group
The Sinsuke Fujieda Group is a Tokyo-based sextet led by saxophonist and flutist Sinsuke Fujieda. Fujieda formed the group to blend jazz with a range of other genres, and their first album, Evolution, came out in 2009. In 2021 they self-released Informel, a double CD and DVD set rooted in spiritual jazz, on their own SoFa Records label.
Their sound draws on the grooves of 1970s modal and spiritual jazz, with classical, world and Eastern influences woven in. The result is an organic but modern ensemble style that has made them a new classic of Japanese spiritual jazz. Reviewers describe it as lineage work rather than revivalism: it takes in the atmospheric gravity of the past and refracts it through a contemporary Tokyo lens.
The band’s breakthrough is Fukushima, recorded at Groove Studio Matsudo in May 2023. Superfly Records, the French record shop and label, released it in Europe in April 2025, and it reached No. 1 on the Juno Records Jazz Chart. Fujieda’s tenor and soprano sax play against Fumiko Takeshita’s violin, which fills the space a second horn might occupy. fukushima cd 1 +2
The lineup is Sinsuke Fujieda (tenor and soprano sax, flute), Fumiko Takeshita (violin), Shinichi Tsukamoto (piano), Shigeru Kato (bass), Kensaku Osumi (drums) and Daisuke Arakari (percussion).
For fans of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders, or of Terumasa Hino and the Japanese spiritual jazz of the early seventies, this is essential listening.
FUKUSHIMA CD Release 02£25.00
Sinsuke Fujieda Informel 2020 performance£85.00