Eiji Nakayama - 1978 - Aya's Samba

Eiji Nakayama

1978

Aya's Samba

01. Aya's Samba 6:32

02. Yellow Living 9:53

03. See Sea Town 9:48

04. Far-away Road. 8:08

Bass – Eiji Nakayama

Drums – Takaaki Atsumi

Piano – Atsushi Sakuraba

Tenor Saxophone – Kenji Takahashi

Recorded on February 2, 1978.

Beautiful grooves from a cool Japanese group -- one led by bassist Eiji Nakayama, with some great electric piano and tenor sax in the lineup too! The tracks are long, and relatively open-ended -- kind of in the Three Blind Mice label style of the period, but with an even more contemplative feel -- especially on some of the piano lines, which get nice and blocky -- really feeling their way into space, as the tenor sax comes into the mix to carve out a few more edges!

I'd never had as much joy getting into samba as I have bossa nova (sorry Chico Buarque, sorry Luis Bonfa), but this here jazzthing takes everything strident and sensual I like about samba rhythms and pares it back to a relatively sparse jazz quartet arrangement without any of the florid melodic trappings that have imposed a low ceiling for me in the past. The bookending tracks explore this samba-jazz fusion most vibrantly, while the middle two are mellow jazz loungers. "See Sea Town" is the most ambitious piece of the two, culminating in a long, erratic solo from saxophonist Kenji Takahashi, but his playing across the "Misty"-esque slowburner "Yellow Living" might just be the greater highlight: this one's demure stylings accentuate the grit in his rather dry tone better than anything else on the record. Nakayama’s double bass is the star of the show, however: I love, love, love the way he carries these grooves but maintains such a vibrant melodic dialogue with his bandmates.

Anyhow, four substantive tracks in 35-minutes also gives this tremendous binge value that I’ve exploited with relish – I've explored a hell of a lot more jazz since first hearing this, but it remains an easy go-to. It was also reportedly the inspiration behind the Japanese jazz label Johnny's Disk, so chalk up a handful of legacy points if this is something that matters to you. Great record.