New Vinyl: Jazz Additions!

Fresh off the FedEx plane, from Japan

I’ve been a busy bee lately, so finding time to post has been a challenge. I’m overdue for a Jazz post, but received a shipment of albums from one of my Japanese contacts last week so thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share some great music. Here are the five Jazz albums I just received!

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Michel Sardaby - Gail (1975)

Sardaby, while well-known in France, doesn’t have a huge following outside of Europe for some reason. While his discography is fairly small for someone who was actively playing for 40+ years, I’ve yet to consider any of his albums ‘misses’ for me. While Sardaby passed away at the end of 2023 (at the age of 88), he’s left behind a wonderful group of albums that serve as a great legacy to his soulful, seductive playing.

Here’s the title track:

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Grant Green - Matador (1979)

I lucked into a near mint copy of the original pressing of this album, which was initially only released in Japan until its first reissue in the US in 1990. One of Green’s finest albums, Matador features him front and center, showcasing some of his best improvisation work across his entire discography. For fans of Jazz guitar, I consider this an essential and very important album.

Here he is playing the Coltrane arrangement of ‘My Favorite Things’ and if you didn’t know any better, you could almost say it was his!

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Duke Jordan Trio - So Nice Duke (1982)

This album was released during a weird time for the TBM label, during a short two-year stint with Trio Records (another Japanese jazz label) handling pressing via a master-transfer agreement that ended in legal disputes.

The album was recorded live on analog tape at the So Nice club in Japan in 1982. For a live recording, the sound is pretty superb.

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The Russ Freeman Trio - S/T (1954)

Originally released in 1954 on 10”, this was reissued in Japan in 1990 on 12” (which is shown here). While the original 10” is quite rare, it featured Russ Freeman’s first sessions as a bandleader. While the recording quality is definitely reflective of the time period, the music is simply beautiful.

If you stumble across this anywhere for a decent price, pick it up!

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Isao Suzuki & Sunao Wada with the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, George Otsuka Quintet + 2 - Live in ‘5 Days in Jazz 1974’ Now’s The Time (1974)

A grail album for me, this one is a rarity even inside Japan, with copies fetching hundreds of dollars each (mine wasn’t cheap either). This album — frankly, a huge jam session — features the best of the best of Japan’s jazz talent from the time period, recorded live for TBM.

For fans of Japanese jazz (and jazz in general), I strongly suggest giving this one a listen, if only digitally. I’m over the moon to add this one to my collection.

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That’s all for now! Hopefully there’s a few new ones for readers to dive into. Up next, I’m working on another HiFi post featuring source equipment and then a fragrance post highlighting some recent sample testing and bottle pickups.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring!