Junko Onishi

[Milestones]

Anyone up on Junko Onishi?

I believe she was signed to Blue Note for a while, and she appeared on an album with Jackie McLean: Hat Trick.  In fact, that's all I really know of her work.  Her playing actually was more enjoyable than his. 

I know she did a record with Joe Lovano before the turn of the century--and I certainly wouldn't mind hearing that.

I have found some recent live stuff that sounds good--listened to tracks "Water Reflection" and "Rain in March."  She may have moved on to her own compositions, as opposed to jazz classics and standards.  

Perhaps we need to be more accepting of Japanese musicians.  

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The CD she made with Lovano, "Tenor Time", used to be impossible to find. A check of discogs, shows quite a few up for sale there now: https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/3597319530

She was also on a Japanese date with Phil Woods leading the band called "Cool Woods".

[jlhoots]

5 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

The CD she made with Lovano, "Tenor Time", used to be impossible to find. A check of discogs, shows quite a few up for sale there now: https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/3597319530

She was also on a Japanese date with Phil Woods leading the band called "Cool Woods".

You made a copy of the Lovano for me years ago.

[felser]

I always appreciated her ca. 1990's work on Somethin' Else/Blue Note, own a good bit of it, which is unusual for me to go in so heavily on albums from that era.  The 1994 live at the Village Vanguard albums were especially good.

[clifford_thornton]

On 5/2/2025 at 5:46 PM, Milestones said:

 

Perhaps we need to be more accepting of Japanese musicians.  

are we not?

In this house, Japanese jazz of varying stripes is pretty regularly on deck.

[mjazzg]

Yes Japanese Jazz gets talked about a fair bit on the forum I'd say. There's at least one dedicated thread.

https://www.organissimo.org/forum/topic/76926-japanese-jazz/#comment-1412116

Also the "listening to" threads often feature Japanese musicians as leaders and in bands.

Gets played a fair deal in this house too

Edited May 5 by mjazzg

[tranemonk]

On 5/2/2025 at 5:46 PM, Milestones said:

Anyone up on Junko Onishi?

I believe she was signed to Blue Note for a while, and she appeared on an album with Jackie McLean: Hat Trick.  In fact, that's all I really know of her work.  Her playing actually was more enjoyable than his. 

I know she did a record with Joe Lovano before the turn of the century--and I certainly wouldn't mind hearing that.

I have found some recent live stuff that sounds good--listened to tracks "Water Reflection" and "Rain in March."  She may have moved on to her own compositions, as opposed to jazz classics and standards.  

Perhaps we need to be more accepting of Japanese musicians.  

I saw her live once at the Montreal Jazz Festival over a decade ago, and she and her band were amazing. One of my top five shows of all time. I strongly recommend a three-CD live set of her Unity band. It came out on a Japanese label a few years ago. I don't think she leaves Japan much, and I have not seen or heard of her touring in the US in years.

https://junkoonishi.jp/

https://www.discogs.com/release/15558316-Junko-Onishi-Presents-The-Sextetplus-Unity-All

https://www.amazon.com/Unity-Onishi-presents-thesextetplus-PitInn完全版・3枚組/dp/B087Z34DHF