Yuji Imamura

This is a rare, Japanese-only release, originally released in 1977 on the audiophile Three Blind Mice label. What does it sound like? It's two side-long tracks and it's deep, deep, deep into the Miles groove of 1974-1975. If you like Agharta, Pangea & Dark Magus, you just really can't go wrong with this one.

Terumasa Hino - A Part (1971) {2018 Octave Lab OTLCD2385}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Digital Download -> 364 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 129 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1971, 2018 Canyon / Deep Jazz Reality / Octave Lab | OTLCD2385
Jazz / Post Bop / Spiritual Jazz / Trumpet

A fantastic collaboration between Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino and avant bassist Reggie Workman – one that might seem unusual if you only know Hino's later work, but which was part of a few key collaborations that Hino and Workman did together at the start of the 70s – part of a real spiritual awakening in the trumpeter's music! The tracks are long and very expressive – and the group is mostly Japanese – with Hino on trumpet, Workman on bass, Motohiko Hino on drums, Kiyoshi Sugimoto on guitar, Mideo Ichikawa on electric piano, Yuji Imamura on conga, and Takao Uematsu on bass clarinet and tenor – all working together in a spirit that's clearly caught the imagination of the post-Coltrane years, and which is completely different than the straighter hardbop that Hino was recording just a few years previously.

A beautiful little record, with some of the slight exotic touches you might expect from the title - as the group features Kazumi Watanabe on acoustic and electric guitar, and Yuji Imamura on percussion - both musicians who help open up the sound of the trio core into much warmer territory! Masaru Imada plays piano with a sharply sparkling tone, but also a strong sense of rhythm - one that's often amplified by the excellent bass work of Mitsuaki Furuno, who may well be the real star of the set - given his subtle talent for moving things forward.

Masaru Imada Trio +2 - Green Caterpillar (1975) {2013 Japan Three Blind Mice Mini LP Blu-spec CD Remaster THCD-222}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 284 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1975, 2013 Three Blind Mice / Sony Music Direct (Japan) / Think! Records | THCD-222 | LP TBM-39
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Post Bop / Electric Piano / Piano

Three Blind Mice Blu-spec CD reissue series! Limited paper sleeve edition! Pianist Imada Masaru was 42 years old when he recorded this album in 1975. His adventurous spirit led him to use the electric piano for the first time in a recording, and thanks to his musicianship, he made it sound like he'd been playing the instrument for years. The program opens with the title track, a sophisticated urban funk. Guitarist Kazumi Watanabe plays a big role here. It is followed by a more intricate, fusion-like "Straight Flash."

Takehiro Honda - What's Going On (1971) {Solid Japan Cardboard Sleeve CDSOL-1482 rel 2012}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 253 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 81 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 53 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1971, 2012 Trio Records / Solid Records Japan | CDSOL-1482
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz / Groove

Recorded in the U.S. with arranger Teddy Adams, What's Going On embraces in full the American influences that shape it – the polemical R&B of James Brown and Marvin Gaye looms heavy via covers of "Ain't It Funky Now" and the title cut, while the sound and sensibility clearly draw from West coast soul-jazz innovators like Les McCann and Gerald Wilson. But the curiosity and estrangement inherent in the album's stranger-in-a-strange-land origins are in fact its dominant element: Takehiro Honda doesn't simply channel his myriad influences, he also dissects them, taking them apart and putting them back together to understand how they work. The result is a wonderfully eccentric and heartfelt interpretation of American funk rendered in distinctly Japanese terms – studious but a bit goofy, formal yet passionately groovy.

"Tee" in Tee & Company is the nickname of Three Blind Mice's founder and producer Takeshi Fujii, who formed the all-star group of eight top Japanese jazz musicians in 1977 for a series of concerts and seven days of studio recording that produced three separate albums. This supergroup included who's who of the Japanese jazz scene: Kenji Mori and Takao Uematsu on saxophones, Masaru Imada on piano, Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, Hideto Kanai on bass, Nobuyoshi Ino on electric bass, Hiroshi Murakami on drums and Yuji Imamura on percussion. Fujii and the musicians at the time were pursuing jazz as a new art form and not just as commercial entertainment. This is an important historic document of the energy that jazz had in Japan in the late 1970s!