HutchFan

Aldo Romano - Ritual (Owl, 1988)

Muhal Richard Abrams featuring Malachi Favors - Sightsong (Black Saint, 1976) Piano-bass duos are cool. This one is a longtime favorite.

So, so true. Sometimes, it's immediate, almost intuitive. Other times, you've got to be more patient. "Clouds parting" . . . I like that metaphor. That's it. Nothing else quite like it when the skies open up.

NP: Mike Osborne - Outback (Turtle UK, 1970) with Harry Beckett, Chris McGregor, Harry Miller, and Louis Moholo Very abstract -- and, at times, very dissonant -- but also very beautiful. Some continuity with Dolphy, I think. . . . It took me a while to get inside this, but I'm glad I kept at it. Always a good feeling when formerly opaque music finally reveals itself after repeated listening.

Sounding good! I like it very much. As you say, everyone in the band is top-notch. And I dig the unique compositions. The music reminds me of a late-80s update on late-60s Andrew Hill. I keep thinking of "Plantation Bag" on Passing Ships. The music is abstract, but it's also very funky -- even if the funky vibe isn't conventional. Instead, it's somehow "irregular" funk. . . . The same could be said about High Contrast.

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Never gets old.

Michele Rosewoman and Quintessence - Contrast High (Enja, 1989)

I really enjoy that one.

Nobody else's ears are as good as your own. On the other hand, it's fun & healthy to challenge your ears to hear new things. Movement, growth, and all that. A bit of a contradiction!

Ha! I remember those days very well -- but it's been a while. My youngest just turned 21. 😲 I mentioned Akira Miyazawa earlier. Neither of us were familiar with his work before Bull Trout in '69. Here's a self-titled effort from 1962: Clearly, the guy liked to fish.

No sweat! . . . In an ideal world, we'd all be sitting around a table in a pub for these sorts of conversations. It's so much easier to be understood when we have the benefit of seeing one another's facial expressions, body language, and all the rest that comes along with in-person interactions.

The Crawl is pretty darn good too!

Ah, I see what you're saying. That makes sense.

I agree. Another way of thinking about it: I wonder how much the fragmentation of "Jazz" (as a sort of imagined unity) into many "Jazzes" (spinning off in a seemingly crazy multitude of directions) contributed to this around-the-world flowering as well. It's almost as if people said to themselves, "Hey, we can do whatever the hell we want!" This theory is just speculation on my part, of course. But it definitely feels like the breakdown of the "rules of the game" freed up musicians to try many new things -- and this was true in the United States too. Interesting. I would be hesitant to say that Japanese jazz was more dependent on American models than European jazz was -- as a blanket sort of statement -- particularly if we're focusing on first half of the Seventies. I might be more comfortable with the assertion if we were talking about the second half of the decade. During that time, in Japan there was definitely a lot of jumping on the fusion bandwagon. But -- even if we take the later-70s into account -- it seems like there were many European and Japanese jazz musicians striking out in new & interesting directions during the decade. Just curious: Do you include musicians like Satoh, Kikuchi, and Togashi in the "free-er perimeter"? Because these are the sorts of figures that I would point to as evidence of the vitality of J-Jazz.

I see. I didn't know this.

Now: Earlier:

Rab, I've been on a bit of Akira Miyazawa kick lately, but the records that I've been focusing on were made just after the period that you're looking for. That said, I think Miyazawa -- much like Akiyoshi & Watanabe -- is regarded as a pioneer in Japanese jazz. To give you a sense of his age relative to other well-known Japanese jazzmen, Miyazawa is at least 12 years older than his sidemen/collaborators on Bull Trout (Victor, 1969): - Miyazawa - b. 1927 - Masahiko Satoh - b. 1941 - Yasuo Arakawa - b. 1939 - Masahiko Togashi - b. 1940 I haven't heard any of Miyazawa's work that precedes Bull Trout, which is probably (?) his most highly-regarded album. Even so, I thought I'd toss his name in the ring, because there might be some interesting stuff that does fall into the mid-Forties to late-Sixties timeframe you describe above. Here's Miyazawa's Discogs entry (all credits, both leader & sideman). The first thing that catches my eye: Lots of cheesecake covers. My assumption: It seems like there was a flowering of creative and distinctively different jazz in Japan that began in the very late-60s. (This actually paralleled things that were happening in Europe.) Jazz without an American accent. In general, before that, it seems less unique, largely derivative. But, like I said, this is just an assumption. Really, I haven't done enough listening to pre-1970s J-Jazz to know whether my assumption is wrongheaded.

Yes, Fields is terrific. I'd put Castles of Ghana up near the top of the heap too.

Next up: John Carter - Fields (Gramavision, 1988) Clarinet – John Carter Cornet – Bobby Bradford Bass Clarinet, Flute – Marty Ehrlich Trombone – Benny Powell Violin, Vocals – Terry Jenoure Synthesizer, Keyboards – Don Preston Bass – Fred Hopkins Drums – Andrew Cyrille John Carter in 1976, photo by Mark Weber