Daodo Moriyama

Touring with the Micky Curtis Band, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto had the chance to explore several international experiences that he would later use on his 1974 album, Misty, as he worked with this band in France, England and Switzerland.

Koji Moriyama & Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Smile (1977) {2013 Japan Three Blind Mice Mini LP Blu-spec Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 217 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 24 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1977, 2013 Three Blind Mice / CS Record / Sony Music Japan | THCD-229 | LP TBM-5002
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Music / Vocal Jazz / Contemporary Jazz

Three Blind Mice Blu-spec CD reissue series. Limited paper sleeve edition. Singer Koji Moriyama was just 33 years old, but had been singing professionally for over 15 years when he recorded this, his second full-length LP for Three Blind Mice, a label that began a trend of providing recording opportunities to talented but underappreciated Japanese jazz singers in the 1970s.

Takeo Moriyama - East Plants (1983) {2018 Remastered Reissue BBE Records BBE473ACD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 236 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 89 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 27 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1983, 2018 Vap / BBE Records | BBE473ACD
Jazz / Post Bop / Contemporary Jazz / J-Jazz / Percussion / Drums

Really amazing sounds from Japanese drummer Takeo Moriyama – a record that's sometimes spiritual and organic, sometimes very unusually put-together – and which makes as much use of inventive percussion as it does the leaders drums! The group's got this very cool twin-sax approach – both tenor and soprano, each played by Toshihiko Inoue and Shuichi Enomoto – alternating between the instruments, and creating these textures that are sometimes sharp-edged, but always very striking – especially when the album's percussion from Yoji Sadanari really takes off! The whole thing almost feels a bit out of time, especially for its early 80s recording date – almost like one of those unusual Japanese spiritual sessions from a decade before, which also might not be what you're expecting from the 80s cover image too.

Takeo Moriyama (森山 威男 Moriyama Takeo, born January 27, 1945 in Katsunuma (present Kōshū) in Yamanashi Prefecture) is a Japanese jazz drummer. Moriyama played piano as a child before switching to drums in his late teens. He then attended the Tokyo University of the Arts, taking a degree in percussion performance. He joined Yosuke Yamashita's small group in 1967, and went on several international tours with the group until leaving it in 1975. He moved to Nagoya in 1977 and began leading his own groups. In addition to Yamashita he has performed or recorded with Aki Takase, Akira Miyazawa, Fumio Itabashi, Masahiko Satoh, Peter Brotzmann, Nobuyoshi Ino, Takehiro Honda, and Manfred Schoof.

The biggest volume so far in the Spiritual Jazz series from Jazzman Records – and maybe the best as well! This fantastic collection looks at the huge legacy of spiritual jazz that flowed from the Japanese scene in the postwar years – sounds that had their initial expression around the same time that the modal jazz of Miles and Coltrane was bursting forth in the US, but which also too so many twists and turns of its own – with some very strong influences along the way from Japanese folk and culture! Much of this music was initially restricted only to release on Japanese labels – and even later, as some of the artists attained fame, the global circulation of their music only happened with more commercial recordings.

Born in Kyoto, Music Director of the Tonkunstler Orchestra since the start of the 2015-16 season, Yutaka Sado is considered one of the most important Japanese conductors of our time. After many years assisting Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Yutaka Sado started winning important conducting prizes such as the Grand Priz of the 39th «Concours international des jeunes chefs d’orchestre» in 1989 in Besancon, France, and the Grand Prix of the Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competition in 1995. His close ties with his mentor led to his appointment as Conductor in Residence at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, which was founded by Bernstein. In December 1990, at the «Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert» in the cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, Yutaka Sado conducted alongside other Bernstein proteges.