T.D.

Possibly dumb question, this seems like the best place to post it. I've never ordered from CDJapan before. I see a number of interesting items shown as "Backorder: usually ships in 2-4 weeks" Do those backorders have a significant chance of getting filled? I wouldn't order backorder items from most domestic US sites because I figure they'd go unfilled.

If one regularly reads comment fields on Internet posts (I prefer to ignore them), the idiots and WTF moments are (in effect) infinite... 🤮

I'm amazed by this. Honest. I admit being totally out of touch with popular culture, and never heard of that comic. But I'd have thought that Hank Mobley's name recognition was practically zero. Outside a certain narrow circle, of course. 🙄

PM on Albert Ayler: 1966: Berlin, Lorrach, Paris & Stockholm Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $12 Marion Brown: Capricorn Moon to Juba Lee Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $7 Marion Brown: Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (Ezz-thetics) $7

Enjoying this Aketagawa album (Erotical Piano Solo & Grotesque Piano Trio) on Youtube:

I've always assumed that was legit. The download offered on Bandcamp ought to be legit if the Issued under license from Sun Ra LLC language can be believed?

Thanks, Randy. This was a nice BFT. Early in the month, I was really busy and couldn't give more than a cursory listen. Then I peeked at the thread, so guessing was out. Turns out that 2, 3 and 7 are in my collection. 11 is a reminder of something I put on a wish list but never acquired. 15 is from one of the (relatively) few Ra albums I don't have and has been on the want list for a long time. Many good eye-openers among the others.

Couple of recent purchases from this forum and this, which I only recently found and really enjoy

I like Richie Kamuca, and his output as leader would fit into a Mosaic-size package, but there are too many questions I can't answer in the affirmative: 😢 A "Mosaic-type" artist? Was he a major enough figure? Would it be feasible rights-wise? Would enough people care?

While browsing Youtube I came across this...uh..., assertive Abe / Takayanagi collaboration (Disintegration of the Sympathetic). Fun to listen to, but I'm too timid to consider acquiring a recording. 😶 Less "out" than what we've been discussing, but Rooster_Ties (Tom?) recommended this (a couple of years ago?) on the forum. I dug it and it started me on the Japanese jazz path.

I just made an additional commitment to this area. The first two are pretty obvious choices, plus some ventures. 🙄 Shuko Mizuno, Jazz Orchestra 73 Yosuke Yamashita, Clay Shoji Aketagawa, Alone in Tokuyama (great Monkish playing, will have to get used to the vocals) Tsunoda Hiro, Summer Samba (love Aketagawa's playing here, with fewer vocalisations but wonkily tuned piano 😉) and one shot in the dark Johnny's Disk release, Yoshimi Ueno, Sea Sound (sounds vaguely ECM-ish, but some interesting and slightly more outside tenor and guitar solos) Either I'm going to get hosed, or I got the last copies of each (DG), because everything reverted to "temporarily out of stock" after I placed the order...

All I know about Noto is from the liner notes to Dexter Gordon's True Blue (Xanadu, 1977), which mention: Born Buffalo, NY 1930. Played with Kenton (1953-60) and Basie ("briefly" mid-60s) big bands, later moved to Las Vegas to play in show bands.

Imagine the devastation at Mosaic...😢...I'm sure they were raptly following every word of the discussion. 🤣

Indeed...in my limited Youtube explorations, his recordings seemed rather, uh, quirky. 🤔 His "Aketa's Disk" label in general, actually. Going to look elsewhere for now. Summer Samba was most immediately listenable, but I'm not so much into bossa nova, let alone deconstruction thereof.

To be honest, I'm a newbie as admitted above. Yamashita and Satoku Fujii are the only "modern" Japanese pianists I've heard to a significant degree. I like Fujii, but it's impossible to keep up with all her recordings and I somewhat prefer Yamashita. I'd like to branch out a bit and explore others before going completist on the Yamashita discography. Appreciate the Aketagawa mention. I'm going to root around Youtube and Bandcamp.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'd be in on the Sakata and Yamashitas. The Takagi sets look good, but solo and duo are not my favorite formats, so will hold off. Browsing Dusty's site recently, this Abe set got my attention, but I passed for the same reason (solo/duo): I'm kind of a pianophile and have really enjoyed the freeish Japanese piano jazz I've heard.

Many thanks, great info on both books. Blue Nippon is one of the university press books I alluded to earlier. Interesting question: should I go for that, or the Soejima? Can't say right now...I'm more interested in the freer music, but Blue Nippon might be the better read. Granted one can't expect stylish prose from a Ph.D. thesis. 😉

Thanks. I think I'll pass given the $40 price and my lack of background knowledge. I searched for other (English language) books on Japanese jazz, but all I could find was 2 apparently oop university press publications that appear scarce/costly. Will keep looking.

Could be a Roland Hanna situation. From the liner notes to Sir Roland Hanna's Duke Ellington Piano Solos: He laughed when asked about the size of his hands. "Bigger than I am," he answered. "They're not long, but they're wide. With my thumb and little finger, I can make an eleventh, from C to F."

I'd also like to read about Akira Sakata. According to Allmusic, Japan's vanguard saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader Akira Sakata is the very definition of a polymath. Though a musician by trade, he is also an actor, a talk show host, a popular essayist, and a trained marine biologist whose work on the mijinka (water flea) has been hailed by the Japanese government. Will try to research...maybe there's something (even a chapter of a more general book) available.

The 2 albums I have, which were both recommended on this forum, are Montreux Afterglow and Hot Menu. Afraid I don't know the chronology of drummers...the 2 albums were recorded (as far as I can make out from the microscopic typeface on the Japanese CD art) in 1976 and 1979 respectively, a bit later than Clay. I auditioned both on YT. Sakata kills it on these recordings, and he's definitely a name I'll be searching for.

Thanks. Mast Books is the source I found via Google. By coincidence, two of the very few Japanese free jazz recordings I own are trios led by Yamashita (p) with Sakata (as), Koyama (d), and both are seriously good!

From whom did you order? I searched a bit but only found a single (NYC) source. Looks very interesting, but despite owning a few CDs, I know so little about the subject that the narrative might not resonate. Though I did notice the pianist in the photo is Yamashita. 🧐

I'll take Bill Evans's word on Nardis. As many times as Bill played/recorded that tune, he's got to be the authority. 🤣

I made a couple (or 3? not sure) of CD orders from JIB Bandcamp that went OK. I prefer to order through DG because in the odd-lot quantities I purchase, that's significantly cheaper when shipping is figured in. [UK-US shipping cost for a coffee-table size book would be daunting.] And no int'l shipping hassles. But I now think preorder is the way to go with Dusty, because when I wait for "in-stock" e-mails the items are often sold out before I can respond. Thanks, I didn't think to look under "Merchandise". But shipping cost renders it a no-go for me, will hope DG gets some copies.