Brilliant work from one of our favorite Japanese jazz artists of the 70s – and a warmly soulful batch of acoustic tunes from pianist Takehiro Honda! The sound here is much more far-reaching and exploratory than most of Honda's other work – a bit in a McCoy Tyner, post-Coltrane mode – with bold lines on the piano that spiral out in a really searching sort of way – and the album only features three long tracks, all of them great and very vibrant. The trio here features bassist Junie Booth and drummer Eric Gravatt – who give the record a lot of spiritual undercurrents – and titles include "Salaam Salaam", "Minors Only", and "Natural Tranquility". CD

One of the coolest early albums from Japanese keyboardist Takehiro Honda – a real meeting of Japanese and European talents – as Honda plays electric and acoustic piano alongside tenor and soprano from the great Gerd Dudek – with bass from Gunter Lenz and drums from Motohiko Hino! The vibe here is very different from many of Honda's other early 70s albums – with very long tracks that open up and build spaciously, making some especially great use of Dudek's flowing talents on reeds, which can sometimes be sharp, sometimes warm – matched with some equally dynamic energy from the drums of Hino, who's also a really key part of the set! Tracks are all nicely extended – and titles include "Flying To The Sky", "Floating On The Sea", and "Dji Dji Eitch Eitch". CD

A group that pays tribute to the legendary Japanese pianist Takehiro Honda – but one that's got more than enough all-star talent of its own – including tenor from the mighty Kosuke Mine, and great piano work from Fumio Itabashi! There's some younger members of the group, too – and the rest of the lineup includes Yasushi Yoneki on bass, Tamaya Honda on drums, and Miyuki Moriya on soprano sax – joined by guitarist Shinji Hashimoto, who gently colors in some of the tunes. Both Mine and Itabashi get plenty of time to remind us why they've been such giants over the years – and titles include "Save Our Soul", "Rippling", "The Way To Brooklyn", "Hey Jude", and "Savanna Hot Line". CD

A really freewheeling performance from Japanese piano legend Takehiro Honda – one that's got a bolder sound than most of his studio work of the time, and is done at a level that easily rivals some of his most dynamic contemporaries on the scene! Tracks are long, and just feature the bass of Hideaki Mochizuki and drums of Ryojiro Furusawa alongside the piano – both players who can really match the energy of Honda, especially when he's in a soaring style that's somewhere in the territory of McCoy Tyner. Yet as always with some of these Japanese piano classics from the 70s, there's also a nice sense of balance in the performance – laid out over long tracks that include "Salaam Salaam", "Natural Tranquility", and a ballad medley that closes the set and brings the whole thing home. CD

Later than Sadao Watanabe's classic period, but a great album with some really wonderful moments! The set was recorded live in Tokyo in 1975, and it features Watanabe working with a group that includes Isao Suzuki on bass, Yshiaki Masuo on guitar, and Takehiro Honda on piano. The four tracks are all long, with some of the searching Coltrane-ish playing that Watanabe brought to his earlier Sony albums, but they've also got a fair bit of the warmth he was reaching for during the 70s – combining elements of world jazz styles into a mode that really pushed his work on alto and flute. Titles include "Pamoja", "Vichakani", and "Musitoni". CD

A great live set from Sadao Watanabe – one that shows the wealth of influences he'd been drawing on, from post-Coltrane spirituality, to African-oriented rhythms, to a slight bit of funk! The group's great – with Watanabe on flute, alto, and soprano sax, Takehiro Honda on Fender Rhodes and piano, Kazumi Watanabe on guitar, plus added bass, trombone, and percussion – and we especially like Honda's keyboards, which make any session like this an instant treat! The album's got a warm, soulful feeling, but a sharper edge than most of Watanabe's smoother work of the time – and titles include "Hiro", "Maraica", "Wana Tanzania", and "Mathari Terbenam". CD

A bold little set from Steve Grossman – a record that's nicely poised between his frenetic work of the 70s and mellower moments of later years – done in quartet formation, but with plenty of focus on Steve's wonderful tenor, especially on the longer tracks! There's a very nice "bit" in Grossman's reed on most of the numbers here – a sound that's not as screeching as on his 70s dates, but which often hints at that direction, then swings back into a rounder, fuller tone on the horn. Backing is by Takehiro Honda on piano, Masahiro Yoshida on drums, and either Hideo Kawahara or Yasushi Yoneki on bass – on titles that include "Taurus People", "Soultrane", "Katonah", and "Afternoon In Paris". CD

A cooking little record from Japanese guitarist Sunao Wada – one with plenty of offbeat touches! Like many of the albums on the Three Blind Mice label from the time, this one's a bit hard to peg – because the moods and styles shift a bit from track to track, and there's an openly exploratory approach to the music that's really trying to find its own space in jazz! Some numbers are straighter bop, but others have a more unusual approach to rhythm that really opens things up – using the guitar in different ways, and having the bass and drums work their lines with unusual phrasing and sounds that really keep things interesting. Other instrumentation includes alto sax from Kenji Mori, piano from Takehiro Honda, and flugelhorn from Kunji Shigi – and titles include "Sick Thomas", "Coco's Blues", "Guitar's Time", and "One's Blue". CD