Jiro Inagaki - 1972 - Dosojin

Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media 

1972

Dosojin

01. Inanome (4:57)

02. Kigishi (4:57)

03. Susomi (4:10)

04. Kusakai (5:31)

05. Arisobe (1:20)

06. Tabute (4:56)

07. Sasara (3:54)

08. Yabunirami no Isan (8:24)

Jiro Inagaki: tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone, flute

Tsunehide Matsuki: guitar

Kimio Mizutani: guitar

Hiro Yanagida: organ

Hideaki Takebe: bass

Kiyoshi Tanaka: drums

Masahiko Sato: moog synthesiser

Yasushi Sawada: Vocals

Yasuhiro Koyama (Composer, Arranger)

The songs, arranged by composer Yasuhiro Koyama (who also penned one side of Toshiyuki Miyama's "Tsuchi No Ne", another of Columbia's "Adventure In Sound" albums), are all actually variations and elaborations on traditional Japanese "minyou", old folk songs known to people all across Japan for countless generations. The whole album flows very nicely, running seamlessly from solemn folky songs to fuzz-guitar and piano led progressive pieces and back again, always maintaining a deeply Japanese atmosphere.

Extremely rare as an original. In fact, I didn't find one even for a price check, so I'm sure an original is a small fortune. Fortunately for the rest of us, Columbia has come through with a fine CD, housed in a sturdy and beautiful mini LP reproduction, with great sound. This was released through their Deep Jazz Reality series, even though this particular album isn't jazz based at all.

Vocalist Yasuhsi Sawada joins Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media group this time around – but in a way that seems to create a whole new sound from both artists! The album's got a deeper, more sophisticated style than some of Inagaki's other records – not just funky soul, but a richer suite of tracks that still has plenty of soulful currents, but which also reaches towards some more ambitious emotional territory too – never in a way that's clunky or snoozy, but which takes all the best elements of the Soul Media groove, and pushes them a bit farther too! Sawada's vocals are all in Japanese, and have this very powerful approach – never dominating the music, but moving through the instrumentation in this evocative way that almost feels instrumental to our ears, given our lack of understanding of the language. The whole thing's almost got a spiritual undercurrent, althought the presentation is still more in the groovy mode of other Soul Media sets.

I love this, one of the best albums by Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media IMO. Psychedelic jazz covers of Japanese folk songs, mostly instrumental with some spoken word sections. The band doesn't shy away from moments of quiet contemplation, which make the intense parts when they do come more interesting. Kimio Mizutani plays on this, whatever the man touches seems to instantly become much better.