J-Jazz (Japanese Jazz)

From that Project RE: Vinyl I only have another title(Takao Uematsu "Straight Ahead"), I got both on my last trip to Japan, but saw almost the whole series and I definitely want some other ones from those.

Juno in UK uses to have those records for sale but once they are gone they rarely restock. They currently have the last two actually. How do you plan to go to Japan? Seems that the situation there is not good.
 
Juno in UK uses to have those records for sale but once they are gone they rarely restock. They currently have the last two actually. How do you plan to go to Japan? Seems that the situation there is not good.

Next year hopefully. Borders are basically closed over there, but they don't seem to have any big problems with the while situation, they just don't want any foreigners to enter with the virus.
 
Next year hopefully. Borders are basically closed over there, but they don't seem to have any big problems with the while situation, they just don't want any foreigners to enter with the virus.

I was in contact with Dj Otsuka (the dj who invited me to make that J-Jazz mix) and she seems to play records in bars and clubs from time to time. It doesn't seem to be those kind of huge crowded clubs but I wish we could do the same in France and just go to a bar nd have a drink while listening good music.
 
Here we go!

Shintaro Quintet – Evolution

BBE Music presents the seventh release in its highly acclaimed J Jazz Master Class Series: ‘Evolution’ by Shintaro Quintet. Recorded in 1984 and originally released on the private label Streetnoise Records, ‘Evolution’ is a perfect example of stately modal jazz with every one of its five tracks composed by band leader and bassist, Shintaro Nakamura.

A cut from the album, ‘A Blind Man’, was included on the BBE Music compilation ‘J Jazz – Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984’, and it’s a track that’s indicative of the album’s graceful blend of spiritual jazz and gently swinging minor blues waltzes, a style favoured by Nakamura that allows the band to stretch out and explore the strong melodic themes, lush arrangements and seductive rhythms.

Recorded in New York, ‘Evolution’ features the great Japanese trumpet player Shunzo Ohno alongside a mixed Japanese-American band: pianist Jeff Jenkins, who brings a touch of McCoy Tyner’s percussive blues to the album, has worked with many jazz greats including Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris and Clark Terry; US-born Saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu, one- time member of Jack McDuff’s band has also recorded and performed with jazz guitarist Pat Martino; and drummer Fukushi Tainaka, who studied under Philly Joe Jones, completes the solid rhythm section with Nakamura and Jenkins.

‘Evolution’ is reissued as a double 45rpm 180g LP, cut by the Grammy-nominated Carvery Studio. The BBE Music edition features exact reproductions of the original artwork and super-rare diagonal obi strip. It also comes with the original notes fully translated plus a new extended essay and interview with band members by Tony Higgins. ‘Evolution’ is also available as a CD and across digital formats.


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Here we go!

Shintaro Quintet – Evolution

BBE Music presents the seventh release in its highly acclaimed J Jazz Master Class Series: ‘Evolution’ by Shintaro Quintet. Recorded in 1984 and originally released on the private label Streetnoise Records, ‘Evolution’ is a perfect example of stately modal jazz with every one of its five tracks composed by band leader and bassist, Shintaro Nakamura.

A cut from the album, ‘A Blind Man’, was included on the BBE Music compilation ‘J Jazz – Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984’, and it’s a track that’s indicative of the album’s graceful blend of spiritual jazz and gently swinging minor blues waltzes, a style favoured by Nakamura that allows the band to stretch out and explore the strong melodic themes, lush arrangements and seductive rhythms.

Recorded in New York, ‘Evolution’ features the great Japanese trumpet player Shunzo Ohno alongside a mixed Japanese-American band: pianist Jeff Jenkins, who brings a touch of McCoy Tyner’s percussive blues to the album, has worked with many jazz greats including Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris and Clark Terry; US-born Saxophonist Bob Kenmotsu, one- time member of Jack McDuff’s band has also recorded and performed with jazz guitarist Pat Martino; and drummer Fukushi Tainaka, who studied under Philly Joe Jones, completes the solid rhythm section with Nakamura and Jenkins.

‘Evolution’ is reissued as a double 45rpm 180g LP, cut by the Grammy-nominated Carvery Studio. The BBE Music edition features exact reproductions of the original artwork and super-rare diagonal obi strip. It also comes with the original notes fully translated plus a new extended essay and interview with band members by Tony Higgins. ‘Evolution’ is also available as a CD and across digital formats.


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Just saw this on Instragam, this might be our next BBE J-Jazz Masterclass record but it's not in their last compilation so... Who knows? @Selaws I think you collect these records, @kafunis & @indiana45s maybe?

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Great news! I was very close from buying this on CD this year. I guess I did well waiting a little bit.
 
Great news for Three Blind Mice lovers. 35 new titles will be added to the Supreme Collection 1500. As a remember, 40 titles got released last year in 4 batches of 10 CD. This time there will be 7 batches of 5 titles from August to February. Some long OOP albums will be available, some for the first time on CD. I listed all the future releases below with a link to the Discogs page. I know it's not vinyl but at the moment this is, IMO, the best option to discover TBM catalog.

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20/8/19
CMRS-0081 Isao Suzuki & His Fellows ‎– Touch (TBM 57) OOP since 2005
CMRS-0082 Masaru Imada Trio ‎– Standards (TBM 77) OOP since 2006
CMRS-0083 Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio ‎– Live in Montreux (TBM(P) 5019)
CMRS-0084 Shoji Yokouchi Quartet Featuring Toru Konishi ‎– Blonde On The Rocks (TBM 65) OOP since 2007
CMRS-0085 Mari Nakamoto With Shoji Yokouchi Trio And Yuri Tashiro ‎– Little Girl Blue (TBM 33)

20/9/23
CMRS-0086 Shuko Mizuno, Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd Plus All-Star Guests ‎– Shuko Mizuno's "Jazz Orchestra '73" (TBM 1001) First time on CD (last vinyl reissue was in 1979)
CMRS-0087Masaru Imada Quartet ‎– Now!! (TBM 2)
CMRS-0088 Isao Suzuki Quartet + 1 ‎– All Right! (TBM 36)
CMRS-0089 Toya, Shigeko With The Imada, Masaru Trio ‎– Toya, Shigeko With The Imada, Masaru Trio (TBM 11) OOP since 2006
CMRS-0090 Hideto Kanai Quintet ‎– Concierto De Aranjuez (TBM 5012)

20/10/21
CMRS-0091 Masaru Imada & George Mraz ‎– Alone Together (TBM 5003) OOP since 1997
CMRS-0092 Naosuke Miyamoto Sextet ‎– Step! (TBM 20)
CMRS-0093 George Otsuka Quintet ‎– Physical Structure (TBM 62)
CMRS-0094 Hidehiko Matsumoto Quartet ‎– Sleepy (TBM 74) OOP since 2006
CMRS-0095 Isoo Fukui Quartet ‎– Sunrise/Sunset (TBM 78)

20/11/25
CMRS-0096 Mari Nakamoto With Shoji Yokouchi Trio / Sextet ‎– Mari (TBM 3005) OOP since 1996, last vinyl reissue was in 2006)
CMRS-0097 Kosuke Mine Quintet ‎– 2nd Album (TBM 4)
CMRS-0098 Shigeko Toya ‎– Fine And Mellow (TBM 16)
CMRS-0099 Kenji Mori Quartet ‎– Firebird (TBM 3003)
CMRS-0100 Masaru Imada ‎– Masaru Imada Piano (TBM 60) OOP since 2001

20/12/16
CMRS-0101 Sunao Wada Quartet Featuring Isao Suzuki And Masaru Imada ‎– Blues-Blues-Blues (TBM 5001) OOP since 1993
CMRS-0102 Imada, Masaru Solo & Trio ‎– Poppy (TBM 14)
CMRS-0103 Fumio Karashima Trio ‎– Gathering (TBM 3004)
CMRS-0104 Yuji Imamura & Air ‎– Air (TBM 3006)
CMRS-0105 Yoshiko Goto With Takashi Mizuhashi Quartet ‎– Day Dream (TBM 40)

21/1/20
CMRS-0106 Shunzo Ohno Quintet ‎– Maya (TBM CD 5037) OOP since 2001
CMRS-0107 Masaru Imada Trio ‎– One For Duke (TBM 47)
CMRS-0108 Shoji Yokouchi Trio Plus Yuri Tashiro ‎– Greensleeves (TBM 5011)
CMRS-0109 Yoshio Otomo/Hidefumi Toki Alto-Madness ‎– Lover Man (TBM 51)
CMRS-0110 Kanai,Hideto Group ‎– Q (TBM 6)

21/2/24
CMRS-0111 Sanae Mizushima ‎– You've Got A Friend (TBM 50) OOP since 2000
CMRS-0112 Jimmy, Yoko & Shin ‎– Sei Shonagon (TBM 4001)
CMRS-0113 Bingo Miki & Inner Galaxy Orchestra ‎– Back To The Sea (TBM 5010)
CMRS-0114 "Sleepy" Matsumoto Quartet ‎– Samba De Sun (TBM(P) 5014)
CMRS-0115 Hideo Ichikawa Trio ‎– Tomorrow (TBM 73)

Cross post from Fresh Grabs thread. I received five more CD of the TBM Supreme Collection 1500. I love these collection and hope they will release the entire TBM catalog. I now have 50 CD and 25 more will be released in the next months. The last CD is a Days of Delight release.

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I'll receive a package from Ella Records by the end of the week. I won a few auctions last week on Ebay and I can't wait to have these records in hands.
 
Just saw this in the Jazz Messengers newsletter. SOEJIMA TERUTO - FREE JAZZ IN JAPAN - A PERSONAL HISTORY (JAZZ) is back in store.


This book, the only history of free jazz in Japan, has been reprinted many times in Japan and is finally available to readers overseas in English translation. From its earliest stirrings in the 1960s until it reached international recognition in the 1970s and after, free jazz in Japan is a unique music that has found its perfect scribe. Teruto Soejima was a writer who fell in love with a music and devoted his life to it as a promoter, critic, label owner, tour organizer, and much more.

If you like jazz at all, if you like the unique voices of Japan at all, this book will open your ears to many sounds you haven't heard, or heard of, before.

Introduction by Otomo Yoshihide. All new photos in this edition, none used from the original Japanese volume.

Following the action from Tokyo’s Shinjuku district to the Moers Festival in West Germany, Soejima’s book covers musicians like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Masahiko Satoh, Mototeru Takagi, Chisato Yamada, Ritsu Fukushi, Masahiko Togashi, Sabu Toyozumi, Korean saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan and more.

John Zorn writes: "Soejima Teruta was a legend on the scene of jazz and improvised music in Japan ... Much more than a critical observer, Soejima-san was a tireless supporter of music and musicians, and will always be remembered for his brilliant mind and gentle soul.
 
As info, a J-Jazz title in the Target 2-1 sale...

 
Le Très Jazz Club have two records coming on November 20th. It says only 99 copies are still available.

Akira Miyazawa, Masahiko Sato, Masahiko Togashi, Yasuo Arakawa - Four Units


Four Units is a kind of Japanese jazz "all star". Recorded in Tokyo on April 1969, it was released the same year on Union records.
On the first two long songs that open this album, “Four Units” and “Dull Slumber”, we can feel the influence of the “avant-garde” scene of US jazz (and in particular ESP Disk), without however the music sounding too "free". A whole new vibe on the astonishing cover of "Scarborough Fair", in a modal style, where the shadow of McCoy Tyner seems to hang over the piano. The next two tracks, "Rainbow Trout" and "Black Bass", are still pretty much along the same line, sometimes oscillating towards "hard bop", the album ending in a blaze of glory with a solo by Masahiko Togashi.
While this album had a second pressing in Japan in the 70s, this is the first time it has been reissued with its gatefold cover.


Mabumi Yamaguchi Quartet - Leeward


Leeward opens with "Dawn" a long and slow piece led by a Fender Rhodes played in flanger mode, on which Mabumi Yamaguchi expresses a certain melancholy, which we also find on “Dewdrop”, a duet piece with Ichiro Doi at the piano. The rhythm picks up on "Distant thunder", a kind of jazz-funk samba in which Mabumi Yamaguchi lets each of his musicians take a long chorus before ending by taking up the haunting theme of this superb piece. The beautiful "Leeward" closes the album in a slightly more traditional but equally mastered style. It is not known if the cover of this album contributed to its lack of success when it was released, but it is almost impossible today to find an original pressing of this record.
A reissue was therefore more than necessary !
 
Pretty sure I’ve got a digital copy of that Four Units somewhere, haven’t heard it for a while, but I think I really enjoyed it, should see If I can find it and have another listen.
 
Pretty sure I’ve got a digital copy of that Four Units somewhere, haven’t heard it for a while, but I think I really enjoyed it, should see If I can find it and have another listen.

I'll give a listen as well, there is only one song playable on Bandcamp. I already have Leeward though, It has been reissued in the Project Re:Vinyl serie and I don't know how this new reissue can be better (it will be cheaper though).
 
Cross post from the Jazz thread:

My second mix for Japanese KOL Radio is now online. After a volume 1 made of classic Japanese jazz tunes, this time I selected one hour of modern Japanese music (but still somehow connected to jazz) made by Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Nujabes, Naoito or Mark de Clive-Lowe (hello @Mark de Clive-Lowe), just to name a few.

 
Masaru Imada Trio 2 - Green Caterpillar reissue by Le Très Jazz Club is back in print.

 
Masaru Imada Trio 2 - Green Caterpillar reissue by Le Très Jazz Club is back in print.

OMG, that is great news. Had gotten pretty expensive.
 
Finally on pre-order

BBE Music presents J Jazz volume 3, the latest in its definitive compilation series exploring the finest modern jazz from Japan.

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Since the first volume in February 2018, the J Jazz compilation series has showcased some of the most creative, inspired, and sought-after jazz recorded in Japan during a golden period spanning the 1960s to the 1980s. Illustrating the richness and versatility of the composers and musicians on this collection, the music spans a wide yet coherent range of styles: samba, funk fusion, modal, spiritual, post-bop, and bossa all combine to present an aural portrait of a jazz scene that was constantly moving and shifting its multiple musical centres of gravity.

Mastered at the Grammy-nominated Carvery studio in London, many of the tracks featured are reissued for the first time, including mega-rare private press cuts from the YasuhiroKohno Trio, Masaru Imada Trio, and Hideyasu Terakawa Quartet. There’s heavy post modal bop by J Jazz legends Kohsuke Mine and Koichi Matsukaze; samba heat from Tatsuya Nakamura, Hideo Shiraki and Seiichi Nakamura; and funky dance floor energy by Hiroshi Murakami, Ryojiro Furusawa Quartet and Shigeharu Mukai.

Selected albums from which the tracks are drawn will be reissued in full as part of the acclaimed BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series. Released as a deluxe, heavyweight x3 vinyl set in a gatefold sleeve with obi strip and insert, the collection comes with extensive artist biographies and track information. J Jazz volume 3 is also available in a x2 CD set with three bonus tracks, and selected tracks are available across digital platforms for download and streaming.

J Jazz is conceived, compiled, and annotated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

 
Just noticed two new Studio Mule reissues that slipped under the radar. First is Yas-Kaz ‎– Virgo Indigo released in 1986 with a certain Wayne Shorter on one track. Second is Eitetsu Hayashi - Kaze No Shisha released in 1983. Both Yasukazu Sato and Eitetsu Hayashi are percussionist so you can have an idea of what you have here. Snippets can be listened for each release, I am on Kaze No Shisha and digging the music.

 
Just noticed two new Studio Mule reissues that slipped under the radar. First is Yas-Kaz ‎– Virgo Indigo released in 1986 with a certain Wayne Shorter on one track. Second is Eitetsu Hayashi - Kaze No Shisha released in 1983. Both Yasukazu Sato and Eitetsu Hayashi are percussionist so you can have an idea of what you have here. Snippets can be listened for each release, I am on Kaze No Shisha and digging the music.

Thanks for this buddy, its been a while since I last picked up a Studio Mule release. I'm sold on the Yas Kaz, but not too sure on the other yet. I still find it crazy how Kompakt is soooo much more cheaper than everywhere else. Even with extra shipping costs its cheaper than anywhere else I can find
 
Thanks for this buddy, its been a while since I last picked up a Studio Mule release. I'm sold on the Yas Kaz, but not too sure on the other yet. I still find it crazy how Kompakt is soooo much more cheaper than everywhere else. Even with extra shipping costs its cheaper than anywhere else I can find

They must have a camera somewhere right behind me, I must act naturally...

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