A beautiful solo set from this amazing Japanese avant pianist – with the original "On The Road", plus offbeat takes on "Greensleeves", "Prelude To A Kiss", "Let's Cool One", and "Night In Tunisia". LP, Vinyl record album

A searing lost performance from this legendary group – the amazing Yosuke Yamashita on piano, working here with Akira Sakata on alto and clarinet, and Moriyama Takeo on drums – a unit that was one of the greatest improvising trios on the planet at the time! Sure, many folks look to the intensity of the French and German scenes at the start of the 70s – or maybe the American legacy of players like Cecil Taylor or Jimmy Lyons – but Yamashita and Sakata together are simply mindblowing, and have an energy, tone, and sense of timing that's completely their own! Drummer Takeo really knows how to balance things out – and we love these guys so much, material like this is a fantastic addition to their classic catalog. CD

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A New York performance by the legendary pianist Yosuke Yamashita, but one that burns every bit as strongly as his famous albums from Japan – thanks in part to some really incredible work from Akira Sakata on alto and clarinet! There's few folks who could ever hope to match the Cecil Taylor-like energy of Yamashita on the piano, but Sakata always seems to rise to the challenge wonderfully – and with the drums of Shota Koyama along for the ride, the trio must have left the New York audience with their jaws on the floor – especially as most of the US had not been able to get access to Yosuke's records at the time. The set features three very long tracks – "Rabbit Dance", "Mina's Second Theme", and "Sunayama". CD

A hip small group session featuring Cecil McBee on bass, Pheeroan Aklaff on drums, and Yosuke Yamashita on piano. CD

One of the boldest sessions we've ever heard from this amazing Japanese pianist – way more so than you might guess from the cover! Features some great alto from Akira Sakata, plus Hitoshi Okano and Kenji Nakazawa on trumpets, and Yasuaki Shimizu on tenor and Shigeharu Mukai on trombone. LP, Vinyl record album

Features two long improvisations and the standard "My Old Flame". CD

Soaring solo piano work from this legendary Japanese improviser! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the earliest albums ever from Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita – and a set that already has him completely on fire, and well into the legacy of music that would continue for years to come! Yamashita is incredible here – almost a Japanese answer to the freedoms of Cecil Taylor, but born of more Monkish origins – as Yosuke throws out these blistering waves of angular lines on the piano – improvising freely, but never losing his sense of direction – and pausing a bit at the start of the second half of the record to allow slight introspection, before then opening up again in freedom! The group features equally on-fire drum work from Takeo Moriyama, plus soprano sax from Seiichi Nakamura – on two long improvised tracks. CD

Searing work from pianist Yosuke Yamashita – working here in his legendary trio with Akira Sakata on alto sax! LP, Vinyl record album

A New York performance by the legendary pianist Yosuke Yamashita, but one that burns every bit as strongly as his famous albums from Japan – thanks in part to some really incredible work from Akira Sakata on alto and clarinet! There's few folks who could ever hope to match the Cecil Taylor-like energy of Yamashita on the piano, but Sakata always seems to rise to the challenge wonderfully – and with the drums of Shota Koyama along for the ride, the trio must have left the New York audience with their jaws on the floor – especially as most of the US had not been able to get access to Yosuke's records at the time. The set features three very long tracks – "Rabbit Dance", "Mina's Second Theme", and "Sunayama". LP, Vinyl record album

A really wonderful shift in sound for pianist Yosuke Yamashita – material that's still as full of energy and life as some of his groundbreaking trio sessions of the 70s, but which pitch the spirit in a slightly different way! Volume one of the set has songs that are maybe a bit tighter and more composed overall, but which still bristle with the kind of brilliant energy that Yosuke can bring to the piano – as he works in a quartet with lots of excellent work on tenor from Kazunori Takeda, plus drums from Shota Koyama, and bass from Katsuo Kuninaka – the latter of which is an instrument that Yamashita didn't always use in the 70s, but which really adds a lot here. Titles include "Chattering", "One For T", "Nimufa Star", "Jugem", "K's Lullaby", and "Chattering". Volume 2 has an approach that's even more different than usual for the piano of Yamashita – a larger combo that has guitar from Kazumi Watanabe and trombone from Shigeharu Mukai – both players from more mainstream sides of the jazz spectrum, but who provide some compelling sounds next to the much more freewheeling piano work of Yosuke! The album also features tenor work from three different players, each of whom play on different tracks – Kazunori Takeda, Seiichi Nakamura, and Yasuaki Shimizu – and with bass and drums in play, the original material by Yamashita is spun differently than on other sessions, but still very much with his trademark approach. Titles include "Jugemu", "Motion Picture", "First Bridge", and "Drifting On D". CD

Solo piano from one of Japan's most inventive talents on the keyboard – really stretching out here in a warmly acoustic setting, in a style that's quite freewheeling and open, yet without some of the more avant moments of later years too! There's a sense of balance here that's really beautiful – as Yosuke blocks out these bold shapes in sound – stacking them together as he builds the music into great towers of tone – seemingly random at points, yet always coming together with an inherent sense of order that leaves us breathless by the end! Tracks are nice and long – and titles include "Communication", "Paraphrase", "Flight From Autumn Leaves", and "Closing Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

Afterglow is a bit of a strange word to use in the title here – as it implies that the main even is long over, and things are getting mellow – when it's clear that the trio of Yosuke Yamashita are just beginning to set things on fire! The set begins with a mindblowing side-long version of Albert Ayler's classic "Ghosts" – using the tune with even more freewheeling improvisation than Ayler himself might have done back in the day – while Yosuke goes completely mad on piano, and tears up all 88 keys with an amazing sense of energy – matched by richly soulful blowing from Akira Sakata on alto, and equally great drums from Shohota Koyama. An original tune follows, the great "Banslikana" – also a side long, and with a hauntingly lyrical quality in the main theme, which is again exploded by the performance. CD

An incredible album, and an incredible cultural moment as well – as Japanese avant piano legend Yosuke Yamashita pays tribute to the great Muhammad Ali – on the occasion of his visit to Japan for the World Heavyweight match in 1972! Half the record features instrumental selections with a blistering intensity – Yamashita moving at a mindblowing clip on the piano, at a level that's right up there with the best Cecil Taylor work at the time – completely unbridled, and driven onwards by the equally incredible work on drums from Takeo Moriyama! Reedman Seiichi Nakamura is also part of the trio – blowing amazing tenor and soprano lines that are in their own territory apart from the piano, but equally intense too. Other tracks on the record actually feature Ali himself – some selections from a press conference, some in the ring, and some with that unabashed pride and confidence that made him such a unique cultural figure in the 70s! Wonderful throughout – and a completely unique record from a completely unique moment. CD

A solo piano performance recorded live at Pit Inn – titles include "Mt. Senba", "Hamp's Blues", "Jamaican Parrot – Little Question", "My Funny Valentine", and Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing". CD

A great setting for the reed talents of the legendary Akira Sakata – one that's nicely different than his work with Yosuke Yamashita, as the group is a trio – with Sakata on alto and alto clarinet, Hiroshi Yoshino on bass, and Nobuo Fuji on drums! The songs are long, lean, and open – with Akira blowing these tremendous lines – of the sort that makes his music like this every bit the match of some of the best European improvisers of the time, thanks to the inherent soulfulness that Sakata brings to his horns, which has every minute overflowing with meaning. Titles include a great version of "Comme A La Radio" – the song originally done by Brigitte Fontaine & Art Ensemble Of Chicago – plus "Inanaki 2nd", "Right Frankenstein In Saigne Legier", and "Strange Island". CD

Drummer Shinnosuke Takahashi has a hell of a combo here – a group who can swing one minute, step outside the next, and then hit more sensitive spare passages too – maybe no surprise, given that one of the key members of the group is the legendary pianist Yosuke Yamashita, who has a few really standout moments in the set! The group also features nicely sharp-edged work on alto from Atsushi Ikeda, and bass from Kengo Nakamura – the last of whom is a player we don't know much, but who can be bold or sensitive, depending on the moment. Titles include a great take on Ornette's "Ramblin" – plus "Bird Food", "African Flower", "Big Nick", "Straight Up & Down", and "Blues 4 Us". CD

A really classic-styled tenor date from reedman Kazunori Takeda – a session that has the Japanese player working with trio backing from pianist Yosuke Yamashita, who also produced the record as well! Yamashita's got a very inside approach here – laidback, and late nite – which is a perfect match for the mellow, soulful tones of Takeda's tenor – a horn that we really haven't heard at all on other records, but which is a real delight here! The album's got a richness that's undeniable – a classic American tenor ballad approach, but with a slightly fresher Japanese 70s twist – and titles include "Soul Trane", "Theme For Ernie", "Aisha", "Old Days", and "Little Dream". CD

A heck of a collection – and one that really gets at the amazing array of free-thinking jazz that was brewing up on the European scene during the 70s! The set brings together over eight hours of music recorded during two years of this legendary festival – and each new disc has some great surprises along the way! There's some possibly more familiar material here – such as long improvisations that include a solo piano performance by Joachim Kuhn, two by a Mal Waldron trio with Jimmy Woode on bass and Allen Blairman on drums, one by a trio headed by pianist Yosuke Yamashita and with Akira Sakata on alto, two more by the duo of Peter Brotzmann on tenor and Han Bennink on drums, and a final two long improvisations by a great Archie Shepp gruop with Richard Greenlee on trombone, Dave Burell on piano, Cameron Brown on bass, and Beaver Harris on drums! Yet that's only the tip of the iceberg – as there's a full CD of music by a group led by Hugo Heredia on saxes and flute – with Horace Parlan on piano, Dodo Goys on bass, Tullio D'Piscopo on drums, and Mandrake Ivanir Do Nascimento on percussion. And there's another CD that features an hour-long improvisation by a version of the Willem Breuker Kollektief with Leo Cuypers on piano, Maarten Van Norden on tenor, Boy Raaymakers on trumpet, and Bernhard Hunnekink and Willem Van Manen on trombones. There's also a very long track by a cool quartet headed by Polish alto giant Zbigniew Namyslowski – and one more by the French Machi Oul Big Band. There's also tracks by Riot, with Uli Beckerhoff on trumpet; Grumpff with Michael Schlaper on tenor and soprano, and Ekkehard Jost on baritone; Mumps with Albert Mangelsdorff on trombone and John Surman on tenor; and the Eddie Prevost Quartet with Geoff Hawkins on tenor and Gerry Gold on trumpet. And last but not least are two long trcks by the Czech group Celula Jazz Crew – with Laco Deczi on trumpet, Karel Ruzicka on electric piano, and Svatopluc Kosvanec on trombone. Phew – that's a lot of music, and the whole thing comes in a very cool 10" box set, complete with a booklet of notes, too! CD

An essential collection of work from the Japanese scene of the 70s – as set that really gets at the "something special" that made jazz from this generation so unique! Japanese musicians were early adopters of American modes – and the scene had great bop recordings from the 50s onward – but as the 70s approached, old and young musicians really started experimenting with a whole new range of styles – some mixed older Japanese instrumental modes with contemporary jazz, others tried a poetic approach to modal jazz, some were spiritual, and a few even got downright funky – but in ways that were very different than American jazz funk! This set brings together key examples of all those great styles – in a package that features detailed notes from Yusuke Ogawa, the man who's taught us plenty over the years – with titles that include "Mustache (live)" by Takeshi Inomata & Sound Ltd, "Fourth Expression" by Masahiko Togashi, "Do It" by Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media, "Romance" by Hiroshi Suzuki, "Tochi Mo Kurumi Mo Fukiotose" by Masahiko Sato, "Breeze" by Soul Media, "Adult's Day" by Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd, "Sakura Sakura" by Tadaki Misago & Tokyo Cuban Boys, "Muraiki" by Minoru Muraoka, "Mago Uta" by Count Buffalo & The Jazz Rock Band, "D51" by Kiyoshi Sugimoto, and "Breath Prologue" by Hozan Yamamoto, Masahiko Togashi, and Yosuke Yamashita. LP, Vinyl record album