Masaru Imada
Masaru Imada (1932-2025) was a Japanese jazz pianist and composer, born in Tokyo. He played in student bands at Meiji University, joined clarinettist Eiji Kitamura's band in 1953 and led his own trio from 1964. In the 1970s he recorded a series of albums for the Japanese label Three Blind Mice, and in 1984 he formed the fusion group Now'in. Imada recorded Now! for Three Blind Mice in 1970, followed by Poppy (1973), in solo and trio settings, and Green Caterpillar (1975), a quintet session with guitarist Kazumi Watanabe.
Now!!
Now! by Masaru Imada was the second album released by the fledgling Three Blind Mice label and the pianist's first leader album for the label. All four tunes are Imada's original compositions. The two slow numbers – "Nostalgia" and "The Shadow of the Castle" show his lyrical, "quiet but emotional," qualities. "Alter" is an adventurous tune whose focus is on free improvisation while "Gehi Dorian" is a modal composition as the title suggests.
Green Caterpillar
Previous album, "Brow Up," which made it known to the jazz world, this is Isao Suzuki's second album. You can enjoy the interplay with the Watanabe Kazumi, ...etc. This is a masterpiece of one creature.
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Piko + 3
The second in the Masaru Imada reissue series that jazz collectors all over the world have been eagerly awaiting! A solo piano album that allows you to fully enjoy the beautiful tone and fluid touch of jazz piano poet Masaru Imada. The album features Imada's signature tune 'Pico', as well as 'Sum Time A Go', which was also performed by Chick Corea.
Seeking Blue
The second in the Masaru Imada reissue series that jazz collectors all over the world have been eagerly awaiting! This is a tour de force of Imada's hard bop style, featuring Shigeharu Mukai on trombone and Seiichi Nakamura on saxophone. All songs are Imada's own original numbers, and he also demonstrates his true potential as a melody-maker.
Alone Together
A piano-bass duo session cut in a single day at Tokyo's Onkio Haus on 24 October 1977, during one of the bassist George Mraz's rare passages through Japan. The format leaves nowhere to hide and the two players treat that exposure as the point of the exercise: Masaru Imada's voicings opened up to admit Mraz's lines as full equal voices, the Czech-American bassist drawing on the resonant, singing tone he had developed through his work with Tommy Flanagan and Stan Getz.
The programme alternates two…
Masaru Imada Piano
Sublime solo piano from Masaru Imada – a Japanese player with talents in a range of different styles, but who sounds especially nice up-close here in an intimate setting! Imada's got a way of letting a tune really find its way organically – almost as if the songs here are little flowers opening up in his fingers on the keyboard of the piano – although never in a style that's "flowery" at all, because Imada's a master of finding just the right notes at the right moment – never embellishing things…
Poppy
Imada's second outing for Three Blind Mice, recorded across two January days in 1973 at Tokyo's Aoi Studio under Takeshi "Tee" Fujii's production. The record's structure follows from a negotiation between artist and producer: Masaru Imada had proposed a straight solo ballad recital; Fujii agreed to the conception but pressed him to balance the standards programme with a working-trio half devoted to his own writing. The LP that resulted is deliberately split — four solo readings on side one (Mist…
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One For Duke
** In process of stocking ** Craftman records presents One For Duke by Masaru Imada Trio. Recorded May 27, 1975. Art Direction – Ben Nishizawa, Bass – Isoo Fukui, Drums – Tetsujiro Obara, Engineer – Yoshihiko Kannari, Piano – Masaru Imada, Producer – Takeshi Fujii.