Sadao Watanabe

[Rabshakeh]

Can anyone please explain to me why, no matter where one goes on the planet, Sadao Watanabe's records are everywhere? Singapore, Minneapolis, Guildford. The second hand jazz section always has some 'Nabe. 

He doesn't seem particularly popular now and hasn't received big name high gloss re-releases (even at a time when every other jazz or fusion artist from Japan is all over Instagram). I'm not sure I ever see him talked about, either artistically or as a historic commercial phenomenon. 

Was he really massive? What was the USP? There seems to be more second hand Watanabe stock than Chuck Mangione or Grover Washington combined, so I can only assume he was a very substantial seller. 

Edited 8 hours ago by Rabshakeh

[Dub Modal]

I'd hazard a guess that it's mainly his albums on CBS and Elektra, and those probably got excellent worldwide distribution. His wiki page is pretty interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadao_Watanabe_(musician)

 

[T.D.]

AFAICT, "Japanese jazz" is really hot these days, right up there with "spiritual jazz". I follow the "Coming Soon" page at The Bastards, and that's often loaded with Japanese releases. As one of the biggest names, Sadao Watanabe may be riding that wave. His 3 albums with Charlie Mariano are the ones I most often listen to.

 

[rostasi]

"What a knob, eh?" is what British people say when they don't like you.

[clifford_thornton]

Oh, I like Watanabe quite a bit, up to a point (mid-70s). The stuff on Takt and CBS is really, really good imo, not to mention the dates with Mariano (Victor, Takt).

He was obviously a big seller for a time and had studied at Berklee, so he had the American connection and was hot on the festival circuit.

[Niko]

1 hour ago, T.D. said:

AFAICT, "Japanese jazz" is really hot these days, right up there with "spiritual jazz". I follow the "Coming Soon" page at The Bastards, and that's often loaded with Japanese releases. As one of the biggest names, Sadao Watanabe may be riding that wave. His 3 albums with Charlie Mariano are the ones I most often listen to.

 

those nice albums are unfortunately not the one's mentioned in the initial post... the albums that are all over the used bins seems to be a different type of j-jazz, and I doubt they are much in demand, they are mainly much in supply, all over the world... such as these two: 

https://www.discogs.com/master/229016-Sadao-Watanabe-Hows-Everything

https://www.discogs.com/master/333825-Sadao-Watanabe-渡辺貞夫-Orange-Express-オレンジエクスプレス

indeed, those records are everywhere but nobody ever talks about having listened to them... 

[Rabshakeh]

Yes that is right. I really mean those later 1970s and early 1980s records that are everywhere.

Interesting that despite the excitement around Japanese jazz on many parts of the Internet (Reddit runs on prestige Japanese jazz reissues), Watanabe isn't part of it. 

6 minutes ago, Niko said:

indeed, those records are everywhere but nobody ever talks about having listened to them... 

One assumes that they must have sold well to be so widely available. I find it really strange.  Watanabe is not even mentioned as a major commercial jazz figure.

The only equivalent I can think of Herbie Mann, who is similarly under-referenced and oversupplied. But Mann is obviously a bit of a quirky subject who dabbled everywhere, whereas Watanabe is more purely jazz, even if commercial. 

1 hour ago, rostasi said:

"What a knob, eh?" is what British people say when they don't like you.

I don't get the reference. Did he do an album with this name?

[T.D.]

I vaguely remember (from the old CD101.9 radio station in NYC) that Sadao Watanabe used to get played in smooth jazz circles in the '80s. That could be a factor behind the glut of '70s-'80s commercial titles cited.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I think T.D. is right in that Watanabe got rolled up into the "smooth jazz" side of things and he rode that for quite a while. He's like the Japanese David Sanborn.  

[mhatta]

Sadao Watanabe is a pioneer of modern jazz in Japan, but he is perhaps best known in Japan for songs from fusion albums like "My Dear Life", "California Shower", and "Orange Express"—which were not really "smooth jazz", but influenced by African-inspired world music and Brazilian music—that were frequently played on radio and television throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I’ve heard that this style of Japanese crossover music is also popular overseas these days. Incidentally, Watanabe is 93 years old and still performs live regularly; he’s full of energy.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, Watanabe worked with African dance and percussion troupes in the 70s, and maybe even beyond that. Of course he was also (IIRC) one of the first Japanese artists to explore bossa nova in the 60s. Pretty interesting life he's had for sure!

[Peter Friedman]

I have enjoyed this album of Sadeo Watanabe with The great Jazz Trio.

[B. Clugston]

53 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I think T.D. is right in that Watanabe got rolled up into the "smooth jazz" side of things and he rode that for quite a while. He's like the Japanese David Sanborn.  

That's a great comparison and like Sanborn, he had pretty broad interests beyond his pastel jazz ride of the '80s. Besides the dates with Mariano, I really like the wild Round Trip with Chick, Vitous and DeJohnnette and Kenya Ya Africa, where Watanabe's quartet is joined by the Inter-African Theatre Group.

[JSngry]

I first head him on a post-Charles Lloyd Chico Hamilton  record. I was not particularly impressed. On Round Trip, he damn near gets drowned by the rhythm section. No shame there, truthfully, those guys were on their own plane. And then he made that record where he "interpreted" Bird solos. Why? Hell if I know.

Overall, he's not somebody I really care about