Tetsuo

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.

Casiopea is a still-active Japanese jazz fusion band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Issei Noro and bassist Tetsuo Sakurai.The album Eyes of the Mind was released in the United States in 1981. They then released the album Mint Jams in 1982, followed by Four by Four in the same year, which is a collaborative album with some of Fourplay members.