Makoto Terashita

Wonderful album from the Japanese pianist Makoto Terashita featuring Bob Berg and Yoshiaki Masuo. 3 excellent originals from Terashita plus a couple of standards. Howard Stanislevic was good friends with Makoto during his time in NYC and wrote this to me about Terashita and the album : In 1977 or '78, Makoto was in NYC along with Shoji and others such as Terumasa Hino. I became good friends with Makoto and played with him often. Had him over my apt. and played acoustic guitar (my Japanese-made Epiphone steel-string flat-top) and piano in my living room, in fact. We also played in my friend's basement with other local cats from Queens. His wife was pregnant when they went back to Japan. We ate in ChinaTown together once, and she even cooked for me once in the apt. they were subletting. He's a very nice guy and a true artist! Best piano player I ever played with. He came here to play, learn and make his album, and washed dishes in restaurants to make ends meet! He probably didn't get much sleep while he was here, but he knew enough English to get by.

BBE Music presents the fourth release in their acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Topology by Makoto Terashita and Harold Land. Originally released in 1983 on the cult Aketa's Disk label, Topology captures a surprising yet fascinating and engaging collaboration between a young Japanese jazz pianist and an elder American statesman of jazz.Reissued by BBE Music for the first time since original release 36 years ago, Topology showcases the extraordinary compositional and playing skill of Makoto Terashita, the young pianist responsible for five of the album's six tracks, alongside the confident and seasoned tones of Harold Land, respected US veteran sax player and former colleague of some of the leading jazz artists of the 50s, 60s and 70s including Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Gerald Wilson and Bobby Hutcherson.

BBE Music proudly presents 2019's Staff Selections; a bumper package celebrating the last 12 months in the life of Barely Breaking Even, hand picked by the label team. It's been another action packed year in for BBE; one which opened with a sad goodbye to our old friend and UK music legend Paul 'Trouble' Anderson and was dominated by our landmark 500th release, a special Louie Vega / Leroy Burgess remake of 'Barely Breaking Even'- the track Peter Adarkwah decided to name his label after, all those years ago.

Toshiyuki Honda (born April 9, 1957, Tokyo) is a Japanese jazz musician and composer. Honda's father was a jazz critic, whose name was also Toshiyuki Honda. As a jazz musician, he learned flute and saxophone, and worked in the late 1970s with George Otsuka and the Burning Waves ensemble. In the 1980s he worked with Chick Corea, Tatsuya Takahashi, and Kazumi Watanabe, as well as leading his own ensemble, Super Quartet. he was also a member of the ensemble Native Son. Starting in the late 1980s, Honda turned increasingly toward composing for film and television, as well as working in record producing. He composed the soundtrack for the film A Taxing Woman in 1987, which raised his prominence as a film scorer.

Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: deep modern jazz from Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.