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Japanese Jazz from the early 70's - what next?


felser

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So I really love the late 60's/early 70's Terumasa Hino stuff, and now have totally fallen for the Masabumi Kikuchi albums from the same period.   What related recordings would I really like that might be reasonably available and reasonably priced?

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felser, have you heard this?

R-2414444-1369592882-6741.jpeg.jpg

Attila Zoller/Masahiko Sato - A Path Through Haze (MPS, 1971)
Attila Zoller (g); Masahiko Sato (p); Yasuo Arakawa (b); Masahiko Ozu (d)

I recently discovered it. I was drawn in by Zoller, but hearing it made me want to look further into Sato's music.

It's readily available as a download.

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I'd add Masahiko Sato's early stuff -- Palladium, Deformation, Transformation, Samadhi -- to the mix. Also, Masahiko Togashi's records are generally a sure bet and very diverse. For being 'out there' they also are quite lyrical and melodic. 

Mine is a good recommendation - have some excellent early sides. I'm not a huge fan of Sadao Watanabe; that said, the stuff he did with Charlie Mariano in particular is pretty heavy, and I have the feeling that he's made more records that I'd probably like that I have yet to hear.

Itaru Oki tends toward the freer realm but his amplified trumpet recordings (with small groups) are excellent. 

Another pianist, Takashi Kako, was mostly active in Paris but made some nice dates with Claude Bernard, Mototeru Takagi, Kent Carter and others.

I think most of the stuff in my listening pile is pretty abstract/free/rackety but if any of that fits the bill I can drop some names. Homefromtheforest has the more straight ahead/modal Japanese stuff on lock, as well as the free stuff.

Edited by clifford_thornton
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Kosuke Mine, Masabumi Kikuchi, Motohiko Hino, Terumasa Hino, George Otsuka, Takeru Muroaka, Shunzo Ohno, Akira Ishikawa, Takeshi Inomata, Hiroshi Suzuki, and Akira Miyazawa are all worth investigation along with Sato and Togashi.  Beware of recording dates though..with the exception of maybe Togashi anything between 1975-1985 or so might be suspect.  For example some of Masahiko Sato's album from this period are pretty bad fusion.

To start I'd highly recommend some early albums by Akira Miyazawa - "four units", "Bulltrout", and "Kiso".  Sato plays on all 3 and they are a good mix of modal, straight, and free sounds.

 

The heaviest Sadao Watanabe album is definitely the "s/t" 1972 album on Sony with Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar.  Can be had cheaply still I believe.

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On 2/19/2016 at 5:48 PM, HutchFan said:

felser, have you heard this?

R-2414444-1369592882-6741.jpeg.jpg

Attila Zoller/Masahiko Sato - A Path Through Haze (MPS, 1971)
Attila Zoller (g); Masahiko Sato (p); Yasuo Arakawa (b); Masahiko Ozu (d)

I recently discovered it. I was drawn in by Zoller, but hearing it made me want to look further into Sato's music.

It's readily available as a download.

If you like this, you should hear Duologue, a 1970 studio session. On side 1 they play standards - very attractively done, but the sidelong duo improvisation on side 2 is what makes this record really special.

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2 hours ago, corto maltese said:

f you like this, you should hear Duologue, a 1970 studio session. On side 1 they play standards - very attractively done, but the sidelong duo improvisation on side 2 is what makes this record really special.

Thanks for the heads-up, corto.  I'll look into that one. :tup 

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24 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

I had a copy of that but unfortunately it had a short, ugly scratch and was therefore relegated to the "outbox." Haven't seen a reasonably priced copy since.

Yep, it looks like it might be hard to find a copy of that LP. After poking around a bit, it looks like it regularly fetches prices north of $100.  ...Steep.

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  • 3 years later...

Thought I'd bump this thread as I've been really enjoying Sadao Watanabe's 'Paysage' since it arrived a few weeks ago and I don't see it mentioned above.

Peacock, Kikuchi, Togashi, Murakami, dream team.

Looks like I need to check out the s/t on Sony and the Mariano collaborations next.

Also been enjoying the two 'Cantos' albums, one with Togashi the other with Sato by Toshiyuki Miyama's New Herd. Very good, freer, big band.

 

 

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I think I remember having heard about Sadao Watanabe, but I am not sure in which context. Didn´t he play a very bird like altosaxophone on some Galaxy records with some US musicians. I don´t know what has happened to Galaxy, there was a whole bunch of recordings made in Japan.

But I think, Watanabe made some fusion albums also, for money. And I think some Europeans knew him especially for that fusion stuff.......

I saw Terumaso Hino live with Dave Liebman, can you imagine that ?

About the question about pre 1975 japanese jazz.... hard to say, wasn´t the early 70´s a quite rough period for jazz with many guys having difficulties to get jobs and a lot of joints closed?
But I think I remember there was a japanese guy dont remember his name, a quite long and not pronouncable name, who had a big band called "New Herd" and who recorded some tracks with US Stars in the early 70´s. He can be heard on an ill fated Mingus in Japan album from around 1971, and on a Monk album also from that period which was quite unhappy for both Monk and Mingus.....

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9 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Sadao Watanabe's records from the '60s and '70s are fabulous. I don't think there's a real clinker in the bunch, at least not until you get to the smoother fusion sounds of the late '70s/early '80s (not my cuppa).

I'm not sold on the bossa nova titles he did in the 60's, but the rest (the ones I've heard) are pretty fabulous.  Wish they were more readily available, and less expensive.  So much music, so little time and money...

Edited by felser
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On ‎6‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 1:47 PM, ghost of miles said:

You might want to check out this compilation from the Spiritual Jazz series:

Spiritual Jazz V. 8: Japan

 

There's actually a 2CD set of this particular volume (8) -- which has two separate LP issues (part 1, and part 2).  I think(?) the LP issues are only available separately (individually), but the CD issue is only available as a 2CD set.  Highly recommended.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

There's actually a 2CD set of this particular volume (8) -- which has two separate LP issues (part 1, and part 2).  I think(?) the LP issues are only available separately (individually), but the CD issue is only available as a 2CD set.  Highly recommended.

 

 

That's what I have--the 2-CD set.  And yes, it's excellent!

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  • 8 months later...

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