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Improvised Music From Japan Edit search Phrase match

 
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Possible matches: 4
Possible matches1
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Sachi HayasakaStraight To The Core ... CD
Three Blind Mice/Craftman (Japan), 1989. New Copy ... Out Of Stock
Very early work from Japanese saxophonist Sachi Hayasaka – a set that's a bit late in the catalog of the Three Blind Mice label, but one that's also a very special session for the label! Sachi blows alto and soprano sax, and the group here is a very free, open trio – just bass from Toshiki Nagata, and trumpet work from the great Wadada Leo Smith – a partner who really matches the youthful imagination that Hayasaka brings to her horn. The work is all improvised, but with a loose sense of structure at times – and there's a spiritual current to the music that almost makes it feel like Sachi could have been a member of the AACM back in the 70s. Most titles are in Japanese – and the set features 10 numbers in all, of varying length. CD
(Part of the Three Blind Mice Supreme Collection!)

Possible matches2
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Cecil TaylorCecil Taylor Solo ... LP
Trio (Japan), 1973. Near Mint- ... Out Of Stock
Tremendous work from Cecil Taylor – a Japanese album that captures the pianist at the peak of his power – when he was breaking through into this amazing new territory in improvised music, with energy and dexterity that's completely unlike anyone else! Taylor in the 60s was great, but Taylor in the 70s – especially here – is mindblowing – as he attacks the piano with this reach and sense of imagination that would have blown away any of the big cockrock guitar heroes of the decade – all with a style that might sound like chaos at first listen, but which has this incredible understanding of notes, sounds, and colors – all effortlessly cascading from Cecil's fingers throughout! The album was recorded live in Lino Hall, Tokyo, at 2 in the morning – and titles include "Lono", "Choral Of Voice (Elesion)", "First Layer", and "Asapk In Ame". LP, Vinyl record album
(Original Japanese pressing – PA-7067 – with insert. Cover has some light aging, but is nice overall.)

Possible matches3
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Yosuke YamashitaDancing Kojiki ... CD
Maro/Super Fuji Discs (Japan), 1969. New Copy ... Out Of Stock
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

Possible matches4
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Masahiko TogashiWe Now Create ... LP
Victor/Craftman (Japan), 1969. New Copy Gatefold (reissue)... Out Of Stock
Some of the wildest sounds we've ever heard from Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi – a set that really lives up to its title's promise of immediate creative activity, as the whole thing feels as if it was spontaneously improvised throughout! There's definitely a free jazz approach taking place – but other elements also reflect some of the more subtle sonic areas that Togashi would bring to his music of the 70s – still pretty bracing and bold at times, but also with a sense of space that really enriches the whole proceedings. Instrumentation features tenor, guitar, bass, cello, and cornpipe – and titles include "Variations On A Theme of Feed-Back", "Invitation To Corn-Pipe Dance", "Artistry In Percussions", and "Fantasy For Strings". LP, Vinyl record album
 
Partial matches: 8
Partial matches5
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
Eugene ChadbourneThere'll Be No Tears Tonight ... CD
Parachute/Corbett vs. Dempsey, 1980. New Copy Gatefold ... $12.99 15.99
One of the most compelling albums ever recorded by guitarist Eugene Chadbourne – a set billed as "free improvised country and western bebop" – and which features Chadbourne serving up these wild variations on tunes by Carl Perkins, Roger Miller, David Allen Coe, Bobby Bare, Merle Haggard, and other country music legends! The album's much more Eugene than Nashville – although Chadbourne does sing lyrics on all of the tunes, but in a way that's very offbeat and hardly unlike the originals at all – as is his guitar work, which is acoustic and all twisted and turned up in all the offbeat phrasings you might expect! Much of the record is Chadbourne on vocals and electric dobro – but the set also features some drums by David Licht, saxes from John Zorn, and cello from Tom Cora. Titles include "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me", "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised", "Georgia In A Jug", "Motel Time Again", "Dang Me", "Window Shopping", "Jealous Loving Heart", "Mr Record Man", and "Swingin Doors". CD
(Beautiful package – with a heavy Japanese-style paper sleeve!)

Partial matches6
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Gil Ok-Yun, Lee Saeng-Gang, Lee Sung-Jin, & Ryu Bok-SungSpirit Junction – Korean Folk Music Meets Jazz ... LP
Cobra Rose (South Korea), 1986. New Copy Gatefold ... Out Of Stock
A really unique record – one that follows in the Japanese tradition of mixing folk inspiration and jazz instrumentation – yet one that takes the music much father overall, with a freewheeling improvised sound that's totally great! The core energy of the set comes from the saxes of Gil Ok-Yun, who carves out these beautifully edgey lines – next to work on the daegeum from Lee Saeng-Gang, who plays the wood flute with an equally evocative vibe – earthy and folksy at times, but always with a free improv vibe – next to the percussive work on janggu from Lee Sung-Jin and bongos from Ryo Bok-Sung. The set just features two long tracks, both beautiful and both improvised – "Daegeum & Bongos" and "Samul & Saxophone". LP, Vinyl record album

Partial matches7
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Freddie ReddMusic From The Connection ... LP
Blue Note, 1960. Near Mint- ... Out Of Stock
A landmark album – not only for Freddie Redd, but for Jackie McLean, who's the real star of the session! In the early 60s, both Freddie and Jackie played together in a hip New York play called The Connection – working as a part of a live jazz band who were hanging out in an apartment, waiting for their "connection" to bring them some heroin. The music on this set was forged during the course of the play – played live, improvised, but tightly honed into some fantastic tunes over the course of the run – so that by the time Blue Note went to record this set, the whole thing had a razor-sharp intensity that blew away even the best other Blue Note work of the time! Redd wrote all the tracks, and he plays with a dark and fiery edge that we've never heard in his work on other records – superbly matched by McLean's alto, which blows these amazingly precise and soulful notes throughout. Titles include "Who Killed Cock Robin", "Wigglin", "Music Forever", and "O.D." LP, Vinyl record album
Also available Music From The Connection (RVG remaster edition) ... CD 12.99

Partial matches8
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
Chick Corea & Herbie HancockCorea Hancock ... LP
Polydor, 1979. Near Mint- 2LP Gatefold ... $13.99
Sublime duets between Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock – both 70s masters of the keyboard, but working here in an acoustic setting that's a great reminder of the talents both musicians had at the start! The tracks are very long, and balance structure with a lot of improvised intensity – often at a level that recalls some of the longform acoustic trio work that Herbie recorded for the Japanese market in the 70s, mixed with some of the sharper edges that Corea brought to his avant styles from the decade before! The presentation is wonderful – a very ear-opening record for fans of both artists – and titles include "Homecoming", "Bouquet", "The Hook", "Ostinato", "La Fiesta", and "Maiden Voyage". LP, Vinyl record album
(Cover has some ringwear, small blemish spots, and is lightly stained at the bottom inch or so.)

Partial matches9
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
Liudas MockunasIn Residency At Bitches Brew ... CD
No Business (Lithuania), 2021. New Copy ... $9.99 18.99
Bitches Brew is the club, not the sound of the music – a night spot in Yokohama where European reedman Liudas Mockunas improvised these performances in the company of a range of different Japanese players! The lineup shifts with each track, as do the horns handled by Mockunas – who blows tenor and soprano sax – plus a very cool "water prepared soprano sax" – in the company of Akira Sakata on clarinet and alto, Masayo Koketsu on alto, Eiichi Hayashi on alto, Yoshihide Otomo on guitar, and Kazutoki Umezu on bass clarinet, alto, and soprano! All tracks are nice and long, and filled with the sort of sharp reed interplay you'd know from both the music of Mockunas or Sakata – on titles that include "Brown Line", "Green Line", "Red Line", "Blue Line", and "Yellow Line". CD

Partial matches10
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
PicnicPicnic ... CD
Data/Corbett vs. Dempsey, 1985. New Copy Gatefold ... $12.99 15.99
Free jazz, and lots lots more – a lost nugget from an especially creative period in the Dutch scene, headed up by cellist Tristan Honsinger! At some level, the music echoes other improvised work by Honsinger – but at others, it also reflects the criss-crossing of genres and scenes that were taking place during these key years – a point after which free jazz had established itself, post-punk had opened up new waves of expression, too-prog tendencies had settled down, and the higher art world had opened their arms to embrace them all! The songs are both instrumental, and feature occasional vocals from Tiziana Simona Vigni – whose role with the sextet is not unlike some of Irene Aebi's performances with Steve Lacy, although maybe a bit more freewheeling and open-ended – more in a Recommended Records vein – a label that might have been a good home for this set, were it not issued by Data Records. In additional to Honsinger on cello and additional voice, the record also features Toshinori Kondo on trumpet, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass, Sean Bergin on saxes, and Michael Vatcher on percussion – on titles that include "Quandro Era Estate", "Picnic", "Violets", "Teeth", "Orient Express", "Laly", "Romy", and "After The Rain". CD
(Beautiful package – with a heavy Japanese-style paper sleeve!)

Partial matches11
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Attila Zoller & Jimmy RaneyJim & I – Live In Frankfurt ... CD
L+R Records/Ultra Vybe (Japan), 1980. New Copy ... Out Of Stock
Two great guitarists, coming together here with no other instrumentation at all – in a live performance that really demonstrates the genius of Attila Zoller and Jimmy Raney at their best! Both players have always been masters of tone, yet here you also get to hear their strong sense of timing as well – sharing styles that open up rhythmic elements from one player while another is flying off with freer tones and colors – never in a way that's outside at all, yet which is definitely improvised at most moments – with a sublime understanding of sound that clearly comes from the musicians' handling of their instrument over decades of work on the forefront of modern jazz! All tracks are nice and long – and titles include "Changing Leaves", "Scherz", "A Common Nightmare", and "The Day Before". CD

Partial matches12
CD, LP, Vinyl record album cover art
✨✧ Chick Corea & Herbie HancockEvening With Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock ... CD
Columbia/Polydor, 1978. Used ... Out Of Stock
Sublime duets between Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock – both 70s masters of the keyboard, but working here in an acoustic setting that's a great reminder of the talents both musicians had at the start! The tracks are very long, and balance structure with a lot of improvised intensity – often at a level that recalls some of the longform acoustic trio work that Herbie recorded for the Japanese market in the 70s, mixed with some of the sharper edges that Corea brought to his avant styles from the decade before! The presentation is wonderful – a very ear-opening record for fans of both artists – and titles include "Homecoming", "Bouquet", "The Hook", "Ostinato", "La Fiesta", and "Maiden Voyage". CD
 
 
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