Masayuki Takayanagi

For the better part of the 50s and 60s, Masayuki Takayanagi was among Japan's best-respected jazz guitarists. But it wasn't until his experiments with tabletop guitar led him down the seductive path of sonic experimentation that he became the stuff of legend. “Ginparis” (literally translated as Silver Paris) was known as the chanson cafe in Tokyo, Ginza, and the performances often centred around chansons but eventually became the session venue for young jazz musicians. They left their mark on a record, Ginpari Session, with Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, Masahiko Togashi on drums, Masaaki Kikuchi and Yosuke Yamashita on piano, Terumasa Hino on trumpets.

Replica reissue of one of the rarest free jazz LP ever made: Masayuki Takayanagi's Flower Girl. Supposedly released in a limited run of 100 copies in 1968, this incredibly rare record - released as a promotional album, and never marketed - gets its first vinyl reissue via Craftman Records.

Legendary Japanese jazz guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi formed the New Directions trio in 1969, with Motoharu Yoshizawa on bass and cello and Yoshisaburo Toyozumi on percussion. Their first recordings together were published a year later on the original issue of this wonderful album. Takayanagi was prominent in the Japanese swing and bebop scenes from the 1950s onwards, but found a new lease of life in the uninhibited improv of New Directions, a platform he could use to divorce his playing not only from the conventional harmonics of jazz, but even the shackles of his own instrument, using violin bows and table-top guitars in the style of Keith Rowe…

Axis/Another Revolvable Thing is the second installment of Blank Forms’ archival reissues of the music of Japan’s eternal revolutionary Masayuki Takayanagi, following April is the cruellest month, a 1975 studio record by his New Direction Unit. Comprised of recordings of a September 5, 1975 concert by the New Direction Unit at Yasuda Seimei Hall in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, the two-part set showcases Takayanagi in deep pursuit of what he began calling “non-section music” after leaping beyond the confines of his prior descriptor “real jazz.”

Masahiko Togashi & Masayuki Takayanagi - Pulsation (1983) {DIW Japan DIW-3046 rel 2015}
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© 1983, 2015 Paddle Wheel / DIW / King Record Japan | DIW-3046
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Percussion / Guitar

Two side-long improvised tracks – recorded in a spacious concert hall in Tokyo, and featuring the drums and percussion of Masahiko Togashi alongside some very inventive work on guitar from Masayuki Takayanagi.

Masabumi Kikuchi & Masayuki Takayanagi - Live at Jazz Inn Lovely 1990 (2020) {NoBusiness NBCD135}
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© 1990, 2020 NoBusiness Records | NBCD 135
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano / Guitar

This live date from the titular Nagoya venue reveals the mellow side of Japanese free jazz. That could seem unlikely when considering the lead name, guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, a maverick follower of Lennie Tristano who later turned to total freak-outs and noise, partnering with the likes of outsider saxophonist Kaoru Abe. Recorded nine months before his death 30 years ago this month, the concert finds him in the company of regular collaborator bassist Nobuyoshi Ino, plus celebrated pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, who died in 2015, sitting in during a trip home from his long sojourn in the U.S. Kikuchi, who worked with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dave Liebman and Joe Henderson, as well as a cooperative trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, exerts a pull towards the tradition.

Stunning duo comprised of two of the most important musicians of the Japanese underground/avant-garde, Otomo Yoshihide in a duo with the great Japanese drummer, Hiroshi Yamazaki – who has Kaoru Abe among his extensive list of past collaborators, and was also a member of Masayuki Takayanagi’s pioneering New Directions group. This album is dedicated to Masayuki Takayanagi.

Masahiko Togashi - We Now Create (1969) {Victor Japan, VICJ-23007 rel 1990}
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© 1969, 1990 Victor Japan | VICJ-23007
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Drums / Percussion

An excellent debut from drummer/percussionist Masahiko Togashi's Quartet released in 1969, a remarkable free jazz album of strong technical and creative skills, with Motoharu Yoshizawa on bass and cello, Mototeru Takagi on sax and reeds, and Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, an important advance for the players who would go on to form influential bands like New Directions.

Hideto Kanai Group - Q (1971) {2013 Japan Three Blind Mice Mini LP Blu-spec CD Remaster THCD-255}
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© 1971, 2013 Three Blind Mice / Sony Music Direct (Japan) / Think! Records | THCD-318 | LP TBM-6
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Bass

The sixth album released by Three Blind Mice turned the spotlight on Hideto Kanai a veteran bassist who had been pursuing a very progressive, unique and uncompromising kind of jazz since the early 1960s. With his passion for educating young musicians and adventurous nature, Kanai has drawn some comparisons to another great leader, Charles Mingus, whom he respected.