New Stream In Jazz Vol. 9 ~ Boogie Funk & Disco Beats

Compilation series dedicated to the golden era of the japanese jazz scene through the years 60's-70's. Following the volume 3, this volume celebrates the jazz groove into the boogie sphere, highly tinted of slapping bass, disco rhythms & funky beats, including thirteen tracks recorded between 1974-1980 featuring Kimiko Kasai, Jiro Inagaki, Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Toshiyuki Miyama, The Soul Media, Ryo Kawasaki, Teruo Nakamura, Mieko Hirota, Ryo Kawasaki, Akira Ishikawa, Toshiyuki Honda, Shunzo Ohno, The Count Buffalos, Hiroshi Fukumura & Sadao Watanabe. Compiled & mixed by Be Hard Bop.

Takehiro Honda Trio - The Trio

Year : 1970
Label : Trio Records
Genre : Jazz
Style : Hard Bop, Modal

Recorded with sound engineer Okihiko Sugano, the second solo album of Takehiro Honda with his new jazz trio featuring drummer Fumio Watanabe & bassist Yoshio Suzuki. "Chin" Suzuki was his regular bassist from 1969 to 1972, recording no less of five albums whose his debut album and 1972 best japanese jazz recording award "This Is Honda". Titles include "This Guy's In Love With You" composed by Bacharach, the Jazz standard "Fall In Love Too Easily" and three original compositions by Honda : the modal "Hakai To Jojyo", "CMT & T" and "Emergency", probably inspired by the Tony Williams' song who later will play with Honda.

LISTEN SAMPLE

Masabumi Kikuchi Sextet - Matrix

Year : 2015/1969
Label : Deep Jazz Reality/Victor
Serie : Modern Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz, Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Modal, Spiritual

Recorded in 1969, best known under the 1977 US reissue by Catalyst Records, "Matrix" is the first album as a leader of Masabumi Kikuchi featuring Tetsuo Fushimi & Hideyuki Kikuchi (if one ignores the album duet with Terumasa Hino in 1968). "Matrix" is obviously a masterpiece, released after significant experience years as sideman, close to various Jazz masters, Masabumi conceived it, reciprocally, on the saxophone overtones occurred by Hideyuki Kikuchi alongside Akio Nishimura on tenor. Titles include great variations of jazz standards rearranged with brio by Kikuchi, such as the modal "On A Green Dolphin Street" (based on the 1958 Miles Davis version) or the bossa nova classic "Black Orpheus" composed by Luiz Bonfa, the title track composed by Chick Corea, the Jazz Rock to baroque accents "If I Said The Sky Was Falling" (composed for the TV drama "Matte Masu Wa" by Sadao Watanabe). The album also contains two own Kikuchi's compositions, the ballad "Little Aby" (reminiscent of John Coltrane) and "In Fourth Way".

MUSICIANS : Masabumi Kikuchi - piano - Tetsuo Fushimi - trumpet - Hideyuki Kikuchi - alto saxophone - Akio Nishimura - tenor saxophone - Hironori Takiya - bass - Takahiro Suzuki - drums

LISTEN SAMPLE

Giuliano Sorgini E I Visconti - Under Pompelmo

Year : 2015/1971
Label : Cinedelic Records/Dischi Montecarlo
Genre : Jazz, Prog Rock, Funk/Soul, Stage & Screen
Style : Jazz Rock, Music Library, Psychedelic

Legendary Milanese killer groove album, reminiscent of the swinging London from the late sixties, reissued by italian label Cinedelic and originally released in 1973 on Montecarlo. Giuliano Sorgini is an italian composer and pianist in music for TV programs (Scappo Per Cantare), B-movies (Non Si Deve Profanare Il Sonno Dei Morti) and various documentaries produced for RAI (Gli Animali...Che Simpatia ; Pauline, Il Cavallo Sapiente). "Under Pompelmo" contains some elements from a typical soundscape and background music for films, including acid organ & fuzz guitar with pop overtones (Echos From Canyon, To Rebound), Funk/Soul (Wandering Man), psychedelic rock (When I See You) and the hypnotic title track, a jam session approaching 17 minutes. All tracks conducted & arranged by Giuliano Sorgini (p, org) featuring Marcello Caruti Atonelli (eb), Luigi Massari & Massimo Tonson Latour (eg), Franco Romagniello (ds).

Brazilian Tapestry Vol. 4

Volume 4 of the compilation series dedicated to the essential sound of the Brazil '60 & '70, including Latin grooves, MPB, Psychedelic music & Tropicália featuring Lalo Schifrin, Maria Bethânia, Tom Zé, Caetano Veloso, Bossa Três, Raulzinho, Edú Lobo, Á Tribo, Joyce, Guilherme Coutinho, Zito Righi & many more... All tracks compiled & mixed by Be Hard Bop.

Spicy Reggae Island

Tropical Jazz, Funk & Caribbean flavors compilation coming from Jamaica to Japan by France & USA. A reading of Reggae by the masters of Jazz including various Caribbean artists incorporating Jazz & Soul in Reggae music. It features Eumir Deodato, Herbie Hancock, Sadao Watanabe, Ahmad Jamal, Idris Muhammad, Ernest Ranglin, Monty Alexander, Rico Rodriguez & many others. All tracks released between 1973-1980, compiled & mixed by Be Hard Bop.

George Otsuka Quintet - Sea Breeze

Year : 1971
Label : Union/Teichiku Records
Serie : Young Generation Music
Genre : Jazz
Style : Hard Bop, Modal, Jazz Funk

Masterpiece of Hard Bop/Modal Jazz by George Otsuka Quintet featuring Hideo Ichikawa, Takashi Mizuhashi, Takao Uematsu. The young Shunzo Ohno completes the formation and demonstrates, at just 22 years, that he's one of best japanese jazz trumpeter from his generation. George plays with his regular pianist, since 1965, in charge of all compositions (except The Beatles' song), to the point of wondering whether "Sea Breeze" would not rather a Ichikawa's project. "Sea Breeze" includes various jazz styles, with cool & mellow atmosphere, centered around the Fender rhodes, associated to funk/soul rhythms (Potato Chips), Hard Bop (Jumping Cats), Modal (Fool On The Hill), gospel & spiritual  jazz (Cannibal). 

MUSICIANS : George Otsuka - drums - Hideo Ichikawa - electric piano -  Takashi Mizuhashi - bass - Takao Uematsu - tenor, soprano saxophone - Shunzo Ohno - trumpet, flugelhorn

LISTEN SAMPLE

Maki Asakawa - Asakawa Maki No Sekai (Maki)

Year : 1970
Label : Express
Genre : Jazz, Folk Rock, Latin Jazz
Style : Pop, Bossa Nova, Avant-Garde

Maki Asakawa was an iconic japanese jazz and blues songstress, lyricist and composer, cantor of japanese counter culture, who recorded over 30 albums between 1970-2010, her first decade being marked by american psychedelia & folk rock music. "Asakawa Maki No Sekai" (The World Of Maki), is an approach of various musical genres mastered by this versatile artist, as well Pop, Jazz, Latin, as Folk & Rock 'N' Roll music. Supported by experienced musicians such as Masaru Imada, Jiro Inagaki & Yokouchi Shoji, she associates compositions of the Jazz arranger  Kozaburo Yamaki to the lyrics of the iconic avant-garde poet, Shuji Terayama. This first Maki's testimony consists in studio & live recordings ranging from Jazz to Bossa Nova, by Acid Folk & Psychedelic Rock, including also some japanese modern folk vocal overtones (Enka). All tracks composed & arranged by Kozaburo Yamaki except "Kamome" by Osamu Kitayama, the New Orleans traditional "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" and "Tombe La Neige" by Adamo.

MUSICIANS : Maki Asakawa - vocal - Masaru Imada - organ, piano - Masanaga Harada - bass - Kohsuke Ichihara - flute, saxophone - Jiro Inagaki - saxophone, flute - Yokouchi Shoji & Kozaburo Yamaki - guitar - Chico Kikuchi - drums

LISTEN SAMPLE

Toshiko Akiyoshi Quintet - Toshiko At Top Of The Gate

Year : 1968
Label : Nippon Columbia
Serie : Takt Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz, Latin Jazz
Style : Hard Bop, Modal, Bossa Nova

Recording live by the best known japanese jazz pianist, Toshiko Akiyoshi (spotted by Oscar Peterson in 1952), performed during a concert at the Top Of the Gate, a famous jazz club of the Village Gate Theater located in Greenwich Village, New York City. Toshiko Akiyoshi Quintet is based on first class musicians, among the best renowned such as Kenny Dorham or Ron Carter from Second Great Miles Davis Quintet (1964-1968), all playing in the Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers way, including Hard Bop arrangements and samba rhythms (How Insensitive, Morning Of The Carnival). The first side contains only Toshiko's songs, while the second is devoted to jazz standards & covers plus original, "Elegy". "Toshiko At Top Of The Gate" features among the Sleep Walker's influences, "Phrygian Waterfall" was included in their Jazz compilation "Shibuya Jazz Classics" supervised for Nippon Columbia.

MUSICIANS : Toshiko Akiyoshi - piano - Ron Carter - bass - Kenny Dorham - trumpet - Lew Tabackin - saxophone - Mickey Rocker - drums

LISTEN SAMPLE

Toshiaki Yokota, Primitive Community ~ Primitive Community

 

Year : 2013/1971

Label : Think! Records/Toshiba
Genre : Jazz, Folk
Style : Jazz Rock  

"Primitive Community" (Genshi Kyodotai) is a collective especially formed for a mystical project out from the Yoshiaki Yokota's mind. In the same way of his previous project "Flute Adventure" by The Beat Generation, ranging from Free Jazz to Rock by Folk, it consists of a sophisticated avant-garde fusion, a kind of theatrical play speaking in ethnic music with African inspirations including psychedelia, hypnotic tribal percussions, fuzz guitar & acid organ. Titles include only originals compositions arranged by Yokota plus one cover of The Beatles ("Flying"). It features Toshiaki Yokota (indian, alto & bass flute), Shunzo Ohno (trumpet), Yusuke Hoguchi (Hammond organ), Kimio Koizumi (eb), Kimio Mizutani (eg), Chito Kawachi (ds), Tadaomi Anai, Larry Sunaga & Yoshinori Nohmi on percussions.