Recorded January 15, 1975 at PSC Recording Studiol, Tokyo.
A classic set from Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino – and a record that's filled with long, open-ended tracks that rank with his best work of the time! Hino's got all the boldness of his best early years here – none of the smoother sounds that marked some of his albums in the US, and a very spacious approach to trumpet that's clearly inspired by Miles and Freddie Hubbard, but which has all the sharp tones that we love in Hino's work too. The instrumentation is mostly non-electric, but there's an undercurrent of fusion-based ideas – with a lot of free-wheeling solos.
Live recorded on April 14, 1975 at Yuhbinchokin Hall, Tokyo, Japan.
A real lost treasure from trumpeter Terumasa Hino – a warm and wonderful live set, and one that's neither too free, nor too smooth – just perfectly set up right down the middle to open up on these beautiful long performances! The lineup is all Japanese – a great array of players that includes Shigeharu Mukai on trombone, Hideo Miyata on tenor, Sadao Watanabe on alto sax, Motohiko Hino on drums, and Fumio Itabashi on Fender Rhodes – part of a slightly larger ensemble who can be tight at times, but still allow plenty of room for open freedom on the solos. Hino's only part of the picture, as the other soloists get in some great space too –
Recorded at Nippon Columbia 1st Studio, Tokyo on March 13-15, 1979.
The legendary Japanese jazz pianist's first solo record ever, Nature was recorded at Nippon Columbia's first studio in Tokyo from March 13-15 in the year of its release. It features Itabashi making feverish love with the piano and he shares the studio with the great bass players Hideaki Mochizuki and Koichi Yamazaki, drummers Kenichi Kameyama and Ryojiro Furusawa, soprano saxophonist Yoshio Otomo, and vibraphone wizard Hiroshi Hatsuyama. They all joined him to perform his very own songs, composed by Itabashi himself and produced by Ryonosuke Honmura, who also produced Japanese jazz heroes, like saxophonist Keizo Inoue, during his career. Nature is fresh, propulsive, twitchy, and melodious from the first to the last tone. Sometimes the instrumentalists play a classic solo in an overall deep modal jazz atmosphere that seems to be made for cats that love the good old stars and inventors -- from John Coltrane to Miles Davis, from Thelonious Monk to Art Blakey. Nature also shows how deep Itabashi studied the history of the genre, while keeping his very own vision of jazz alive. The man that made his professional debut as a member of the Sadao Watanabe Quintet in 1971 and who was also a member of the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine world tour from 1985-1987, plays the piano in all tempos, from a nervous high-flying quickness to a deep blues-style slow. Besides the traditional jazz flavors, you get a feeling of mind-expanding spiritual jazz, that grand masters like Pharaoh Sanders or Gary Bartz, turned into a sacred music genre. A master-class record in ravishing big city jazz music, adventurous, sometimes meditative, sometimes faster than the speed of light, always grooving with a bright, pure-toned sensibility and deeply soulful melodic imaginations. It extends the jazz history with a fine balance between tradition and innovation. And it stays infectious all the time while sounding surprisingly fresh due to a lot of thrilling musical spontaneity that touches profoundly even though all notes have been written down by Itabashi before he and his combatants entered the studio. And maybe that's the mystery of these timeless five at times epic recordings: all notes written on paper, but each musician had the freedom to dance with them in his very own unique way.
Recorded live at Daichi Seimei Hall, 1, March 1976
Sublime 70s work from pianist Fumio Itabashi, easily one of our favorite Japanese talents of the time – a pianist with a wonderful sense of rhythm and freedom at the same time – very much on display on this beautiful record! The tracks are long and flowing – full of feeling, and as lyrical at times as they are rhythmic – set up with perfect trio accompaniment that features Tsutomu Okada on bass and Takuji Kusimoto on drums – working with Fumio in this special sort of magic that's a bit hard to put in words, but which really demonstrates on record why this moment in Japanese jazz was such a special time!
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