“Takayanagi clearly had a vision for his music, and the result is a thought-provoking album.”
Guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi’s 1975 recording was once, according to the liner notes, scheduled for release on ESP-Disk, the now legendary free jazz label that was graced by musicians like Albert Ayler and Sun Ra. Unfortunately, this never came to pass, and instead the album was shelved and then released in Japan shortly before Takayanagi’s death in 1991.
It’s impossible to know how April Is The Cruellest Month would have been received had it made it to the US, although it is safe to say that the album certainly resonates with the same raw and free musicianship that was finding popularity amongst jazz enthusiasts of the time.
Originally published by Jazz Journal.Read it on Jazz Journal