Jazz /
Goshu Ondo Suite
"Eri Yamamoto transcended jazz, classical and folk forms in creating her new work for jazz trio and 50-member choir. She has seamlessly melded biography, group improvisation and far-ranging compositional vocabularies in a momentous seven-part suite, featuring her longstanding trio in collaboration with New York-based Choral Chameleon, directed by its award-winning founder, Vince Peterson. The suite is based off of the Goshu Ondo, a traditional circle dance song from Shiga, Japan, where it was su…
J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1969-1983 (Volume 2)
"Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz From Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.J Jazz Volume 2 builds on the solid foundation of the first compilation and sees co-compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden once again pick choice sections from their own record collections. They present a deep dive into an intoxicating and beguiling range of styles: from cinematic roaring big-ba…
Holography
**2006 release, long out of print, very few copies available** One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Satoh, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Satoh's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his…
Banka
Edition of 300 copies. Japanese free/jazz sax legend, Kaoru Abe, dies at the age of only 29 in 1978, living a fast and crazy life and dieing of a drug overdose. His entire music career was only 10 years, from 1968 to 1978. In that short period, he was well recorded with around 30 releases, ten of which are solo sax efforts, duos with guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa and drummer Sabu Toyozumi. Mr. Abe also toured and recorded with Milford Graves, Derek Bailey and Toshinor…
Lonely Woman
*2022 stock* Guitarist Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi (1932-1991) was a towering leader in the Japanese jazz world. His first influence was Lennie Tristano, but through the 1960s and 1970s he explored and pushed the boundaries in free form jazz, leading a group called New Direction, among others. Ever a fighting spirit, in 1982, shortly after recovering from a life-threatening medical condition and surgery, Takayanagi decided to take on a challenging task for any guitarist: To record an entire solo …
Three Improvised Variations On A Theme Of Qadhafi
Jinya Disc presents Three Improvised Variations On a Theme of Qadhafi. A live recording board that includes live performances of improvisation by Action Direct, which was performed on the theme of "personal image" of Muanmar al-Gaddafi rather than ideology or political position. Jim O'Rourke refers to Three Improvised Variations On a Theme of Qadhafi as "a constellation of moving celestial bodies, expanding gas, exploding stars densely packed" and "a corridor of endless possibilities and discove…
Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation
Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation, a 1983 record by the late Japanese noise-guitar hellion Masayuki Takayanagi (1932–1991) is one of those albums that always going to be lurking in my attic, so to speak. I can put it away for a while, but it never goes to sleep—it's always calling me. Even if it takes a few years, I'll be back. (As an illustration of this, I obsessed over Takayanagi in a February 2007 post as well.) It's a bashing, clanging exorcism: two electric guitars (the other played by …
Angry Waves Vol.2
Masayukia Takayanagi, electric jazz guitar. Nobuyoshi Ino, contra bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki, drums. Recorded live at Yokohama Airegin on August 26, 1984. Remastering and remix by Yukio Kojima from Takayanagi's private tapes. Linernote (in Japanese) by Kazuo Imai.
Angry Waves Vol.1
Masayuki Takayanagi, electric jazz guitar. Nobuyoshi Ino, contra bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki, drums. Recorded live at Yokohama Airegin on August 26, 1984. Remastering and remix by Yukio Kojima from Takayanagi's private tapes. Linernote (in Japanese) by Kazuo Imai.
Guitar solo 2015 Right
Otomo Yoshihide's Guitar Solo "LEFT" was released last summer but "RIGHT" is completely different from "LEFT". the 123 short fragments of Otomo's guitar sounds are run by computer programming at random so no one know how the sound played. This CD is one infinity."-Doubtmusic
"What is most remarkable about the single, 62-minute track on Otomo Yoshihide's Guitar Solos 2015 RIGHT is how consistent, top to bottom, it sounds. Or, viewed through a different lens, how much coherence (real or imagined)…
Guitar Solo
The Guitar Solo album was produced by Takeshi Fujii, the producer of the legendary jazz label "Three Blind Myth", in June 1981. Takayanagi responded to the request with "Lonely Woman" recorded in August 1982. As stated in the liner notes of this work, Takayanagi said: "In my two years of fighting against illness, my thoughts have changed, and now I'm thinking rather than making a group album. The form of solo would be appropriate to put it together" and he worked on the guitar solo as the first…
Complete Grune Revolution (1975)
A much-needed and expanded reissue of this 1970s Offbeat label LP of cellist Midorikawa in duos with Masahiko Togashi, Masayuki Takayanagi and Masahiko Sato.Keiki Midorikaw (cello, bass), Masahiko Togashi (percussion, drums), Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar) et Masahiko Sato (piano). Recorded on January 16, 1976 at Nichi-futsu kaikan, Tokyo. The original LP of this work has duo with Takayanagi on A side and duo with Sato on B side. But in the concert, Midorikawa played duo with Togashi about 40 minu…
Phantom Note
Trumpeter Itaru Oki's third album from 1975 reissued, a flamed out free jazz masterpiece. Itaru Oki (trumpet), Yoshiaki Fujikawa (alto sax), Keiki Midorikawa (cello, bass, piano), Gozo Yoshimasu (poetry reading on 5). We are very glad to inform that a long time out of printed OffBeat label LP is reprinted on CD. Itaru Oki visited Paris, France in the 70s and when he came back to Japan temporarily in 75, he organized a elite free jazz troop and recorded in studio. 'Phantom Note' is his 3rd album,…
Nord
Kaoru Abe's duo with legendary free bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa, nord, stands as a critical summit between two of the major forces in japanese jazz at the time. recorded in december 1975 and released in 1981 by Kojima, it reveals a different side to Abe.the two had apparently been playing together since the late '60s - Yoshizawa had, for various reasons, and it's probably due to yoshizawa's undeniable heavyweight status that this dialogue is conducted largely on his terms, with abe toning down hi…
Mort a Credit
Mort à Credit shows Kaoru Abe in a fascinating period of transition, moving forth to something complexly and identifiably new, yet intransigently rooted in what had come before. It consists of two alto improvs from a show on October 18, 1975, and five more (three on alto, two on sopranino) from another performance a couple of days earlier. Released by Kojima on 2LP in 1976, it can be said to mark a significant change in Abe's style. Abe is here a little soften from his usual urgency - this can p…