Jazz from Japan, part 3
three more you need to spin right now
Hard to believe it is already February! While it’s been a bit of a wild start to the year, I’ve been focusing on diving back into things that bring me joy, from music to reading, to stay sane.
I didn’t originally plan on releasing another issue for this series so soon, but I’ve been working on building my digital library of Japanese jazz (I have a streamer with on-board storage + am building a NAS server) so I’ve been listening to quite a bit in the past few weeks.
Here’s three more album recommendations + a bonus song at the end!
Makoto Ozone with George Mraz and Roy Haynes - Spring is Here (1987)
I quite love this album and it was one of my earlier Japanese jazz finds many years ago, and is still a frequent spin today and a very easy grab. While there is nothing groundbreaking going on, the entire album just fabulous from start to finish. If you happen across a copy of this, don’t pass it up!
While there are no bad tracks on this one, here is ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’, which is one of my favorites from the album.
Takeshi Inomata & His West Liners – Liner Note (1967)
This album is an underrated gem, in my opinion, with a really nice bossa nova feel throughout the first half (side A) before switching to a more soul-jazz/modal feel in the second (side B).
I especially like the cover of ‘Afro Blue’ that opens side B with a bang. Tetsuo Fushimi’s bright and clean trumpet playing is really lovely!
Yoshio Otomo Quartet with Tsuyoshi Yamamoto - Moon Ray (1977)
A fabulous release from Otomo and his second as bandleader. Opening with a bouncing version of Moon Ray, the group gets off to a nice start, alternating between upbeat numbers (Moon Ray, If I Should Lose You, Shufflin) and slower ballads (Emily & Love Comes Quietly) — all done beautifully.
While it is difficult to pick any one particular song to feature, while listening to the album putting this post together, ‘Love Comes Quietly’ resonated nicely for me. The video below is of the entire album, but should start on this song when played. Feel free to skip back and listen to the entire thing — I encourage it!
BONUS: Takeshi Inomata - Cover Jazz Legend Standards (2017)
So, this one is a bit of a cheat since I’m not recommending this entire album, just one song, so I am going to count this as a bonus item. I was going to feature one of the drum albums with various groups that Inomata recorded on, but was after a very specific version of a specific track that I could *only* find on this particular compilation album. Go figure!
The track I’m referring to is a cover of ‘Take Five.’ The recording is live, with some excellent audience interaction. It is absolutely sensational, and the energy is beyond electric. The perfect sync of the band after the drum solo is the cherry on top. Damn good!
The best thing is this compilation is available on some streaming services, so should be able to track it down relatively easily. Disregard the incorrect album cover on the YouTube video (it’s what sent me on a goose chase trying to track this version down). If anyone manages to track down where this recording originally came from, please let me know! Be careful though, there are MANY different recordings of this same track by him, but none touch this one to me.
That’s a wrap for this week. Since I will be out of town all next week on business, there will be some delay before my next post.
Also, once I reach 100 subscribers I’ll start up a subscriber chat to get some conversation topics going + share some things I don’t want to focus a whole post on — like my YouTube playlist for Japanese jazz albums.
Until next time!!