Teruo Nakamura - Rising Sun

Year : 1976
Label : Kitty
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Funk

"Rising Sun" is a typical Jazz Funk album, among best japanese productions reminicent of the Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters era, including Latin Jazz with samba beats (Rising Sun, Precious One), Electronic grooves (Red Shoes), Heavy Hancock's Funk (Cat), Smooth Jazz (Morning Mist / Steppin' With Lord) and Reggae (Sweet Pea & Collard Greens). Teruo Nakamura is a japanese producer, multi-instrumentalist and jazz bassist based in New York since 1964. He studied double bass alongside Reggie Workman and played for drummer Roy Haynes on "Hip Ensemble" released in 1971. Recorded at A&R Studio, New York City, "Rising Sun" is his second studio album introducing his new group "The Rising Sun Band" featuring special guest musician, the organist Dr Lonnie Smith, and including guitarist Shiro Mori, pianist Harry Whitaker, saxophonists Steve Grossman & Carter Jefferson, trumpeter John Mosley, drummer Art Gore.

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Jazz Liberatorz - Fruit Of The Past

  
Year : 2009
Label : Kif Recordings
Genre : Hip-Hop
Style : Jazzy Hip-Hop, Downtempo

Jazz Liberatorz is a french Hip-Hop trio formed in 1999 by french producers and beatmakers, consisting of DJ Damage, Dusty and Madhi. "Fruit Of The Past" is a tribute to the golden era of Hip-Hop, commonly called "Old School Hip-Hop" including session musicians and jazz samples. As on "Clin d'Oeil", their first LP, it features eminent rappers among Fat Lip from The Pharcyde, Mos Def from Blackstar, Aloe Blacc from Emanon, Wildchild or Declaime. Titles include instrumentals and featurings in particular "After Party (Jazz Liberatorz Remix)" feat Wildchild originally released in 2004 and "Music In My Mind Part 2" selected by DJ RYOW in his "Optical Axis" mixtape released in 2008.

Kimiko Kasai With Gil Evans Orchestra - Satin Doll

Year : 1972

Label : CBS

Genre : Jazz

Style : Vocal, Big Band, Smooth

Best Kimiko Kasai's album ever recorded with the Gil Evans Orchestra featuring some american and japanese jazz greats among Billy Harper, Marvin 'Hannibal' Peterson, Kohsuke Mine, Yoshio Suzuki or Hiroshi Fukumura. The tracklist consists of jazz standards including "Satin Doll" by Duke Ellington, "Bye Bye Blackbird" by Willie Dixon or also "I'm Walkin'" by Fats Domino played in a jazz funk variation. All tracks arranged by Gil Evans, produced by Kiyoshi Itoh and recorded at Tokyo.

MUSICIANS : Kimiko Kasai - vocal - Gil Evans - electric piano - Masayuki Takayanagi - guitar - Yoshio Suzuki - bass - Yoshiyuki Nakamura - drums - Kohsuke Mine - soprano & Alto saxophone - Marvin Peterson - trumpet - Hiroshi Fukumura & Hiroshi Munekiyo - trombone - Billy Harper - flute

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Hiroshi Suzuki - Cat

Year : 1975
Label : Nippon Columbia
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Funk, Fusion

The masterpiece by japanese jazz trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki within the jazz supergroup "Freedom Unity" featuring drummer Akira Ishikawa, keyboardist Hiromasa Suzuki, saxophonist Takeru Muraoka & bassist Kunimitsu Inaba. With Hiroshi Fukumura and Shigeharu Mukai, Hiroshi Suzuki is the best known japanese trombonist who appeared in the front of the japanese jazz scene, when he joined the Sharps & Flats big band conducted by saxophonist Nobuo Hara. In 1969, he recorded his debut album, the Free Jazz/Modal masterpiece "Variation", a joint project with the Masahiko Togashi Quintet released on the famous Takt Jazz Series (the japanese 'Blue Note'), and the same year the big band album "Up Up And Away". From the late sixties Hiroshi becomes a sought-after musician playing as sideman for various japanese jazz artists such as Sadao Watanabe, Takeshi Inomata, Yuji Ohno or Shungo Sawada, joining up thereafter the top Jazz combo "Freedom Unity". Titles include the popular Jazz standard "Walk Tall" composed by Joe Zawinul, the jazz funk "Cat" by Takeru Muraoka, the ballad "Romance" by Hiromasa Suzuki and two original compositions by Hiroshi Suzuki, "Shrimp Dance" & "Kuro To Shiro" with the Kunimitsu Inaba's solo.

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Soul Media - Funky Stuff

Year : 1974

Label : Nippon Columbia
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Funk

From 1972, with the "Rough & Elegance" album saxophonist Jiro Inagaki takes turn to the Soul music. Since "In The Groove" released the following year, Jiro Inagaki renewed his "Soul Media" band recruiting new members featuring the master of Japanese Jazz Funk, keyboardist/arranger Hiromasa 'Colgen' Suzuki, bassist Akira Okazawa, trombonist Takashi Imai, guitarist Hiroshi Yasukawa and drummer Hazime Ishimatsu. "Funky Stuff" is a musical Funk joint project with Suzuki, in charge of all arrangements and six of the eight compositions what does the album contain. Close to the sound of a Groover Whashington Jr. or The Crusaders productions (One For Jiro, Four Up), it includes covers from Kool & The Gang (Funky Stuff), Wayne Henderson ("Scratch", composed for The Crusaders), the latin vibe "Gentle Wave" and "Funky Motion" with the heavy funk slapping-bass solo of Okazawa who has nothing to envy to Bootsy Collins.

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