CK Listens

Hey there - I'm finally back at it after a little break from reality. Today I want to look at a very talented bassist in Teruo Nakamura . Not only did he release a few great fusion albums in the 70s, he also surrounded himself with great players.  First up for today, released on Three Blind Mice , we have 1973's Unicorn . Recorded in two different sessions, it looks like Teruo used different personnel throughout the process. On electric and acoustic piano we have George Cables , Hubert Eaves III and John Miller . On soprano and tenor saxes we have Steve Grossman and on trumpet we have Charles Sullivan . On percussion we have Alvern Bunn , Keiji Kishida and Ronald Jackson . And finally on drums we have two greats in Alphonse Mouzon and Lenny White .  This one starts off with a great groove in Nakamura original "Unicorn Lady." Grossman's soprano sax adds a great element to the tune. Two of my favorite tunes are Eaves III compositions in "Understanding"

Busy week this week and vacation in a couple of days but I hope to work in a few posts. Today's album is from a drummer (multi-instrumentalist, technically) that I learned about via keyboardist Joachim Kuhn . Also a founding member of Weather Report , Alphonse Mouzon went on to release quite a few enjoyable albums as leader in the 70s and into the 80s. We looked at one of his albums during our Herbie Hancock and Friends deep dive.  Released in 1980 on MPS Records , By All Means is a jazz-funk/fusion record that features an impressive, and sizeable, supporting cast. You can check the link for a full breakdown but on keyboards we have Herbie Hancock , on guitar we have Lee Ritenour and on the final tune we have Freddie Hubbard on flugelhorn. We also have the horn section from the band Seawind lending support. It's my first time hearing of them so I'll check their albums for a potential future post. All originals from Mouzon on this one and there really aren't any mi

Hey there. Back again to close out our look into Mikio Masuda 's catalog. The final 4 albums for today are an improvement over what we heard towards the tail end of our last post. Going to keep this one quick so we can move on.  First up is the 1986 release on the JVC label, Dear Friends . The copy I have here is the reissue with some extra tracks. Mickey is strictly on the piano and is joined by bassist Hideo Kawahara , percussionist Tatsuji Yokoyama and drummer Shingo Okudaira .  This one has a Latin vibe on quite a few tunes and highlights here for me would be "Istanbul" and "Everyday Everynight" and the closing tune "Impromptu In Blue." The following year in 1987, and using the same personnel, Mickey released another album on the JVC label titled Smokin' Night . Nothing Earth shattering here but another acoustic straight ahead album with some Latin vibes to it at times. Highlights for me are "Mbalishu" which features some nice back

Back today for our next installment for Mikio Masuda . We've entered the 80s which is where I typically lose interest but Mickey has some redeemable music from the decade - and some that's not of much interest.  First up we have an album that alluded me for a long time. I finally broke down and bought and ripped the vinyl. Noticed yesterday that 1980's  Silver Shadow is now on streaming which I may have overlooked all this time. Either way, this is another one I really dig. My rip ended up having some quality issues so I found another version to share here. Joining Mickey we have Toshiyuki Honda on alto sax and flute, personal favorite Shunzo Ohno on trumpet and Takayuki Kato on guitar. Mickey used 2 different bassists, Osamu Kawakami and Kenji Takamizu , with percussionist Masato Kawase and drummer Louis de Andrade . All originals here outside of Joe Henderson tune "Inner Urge." First up we have "My Delight" and to be honest, the beginning of the

Back again with our next look into Mikio Masuda 's catalog.  First album for today was released in 1979 on the Electric Bird label. Corazon pays homage to the Carole King song first featured on her Fantas y album, I do believe. Corazon also have an accent over the o but my keyboard hates me today. Joining Mickey we have Anthony Jackson on bass, Sammy Figueroa on percussion with Bernard Purdie on drums. We also have a strings section led by David Mathews ; for a full list of the names please check the discogs link above. This one starts off with great tempo and a Latin vibe in the title track. Mickey's synthesizer is fantastic before switching over to his Rhodes. The full strings section adds a nice element to it, as well. This track does feature some limited vocals in Spanish. The 2 other covers are also highlights. First is the Robert Lamm tune "Another Rainy Day In New York City" which also features limited vocals. The other is the Sadao Watanabe tune &quo

One of my favorite artists from the last couple of years is Osaka-born keyboardist, Mikio Masuda . I'm nearly 100% certain my first time hearing him was on Kohsuke Mine 's excellent album Sunshower , although it could have been Takao Uematsu 's also very enjoyable Straight Ahead album. Either way, Mickey plays an excellent piano and has quite a few quality albums that we'll cover here. As the 80s went on, he began to lose me (like most others) and he eventually returned to a more acoustic sound in the 90s. But I enjoy nearly all of his albums throughout the 70s. I'll share everything I have regardless of era and let you make the call.  The first album we'll look at is from 1974 and released on the East Wind label. Trace features a group of mostly familiar faces. Joining Masuda on piano we have Terumasa Hino on flugelhorn, Takao Uematsu on sax and Hideo Miyata on flute, although each player only appears on 1 track a piece. We also have Tsutomo Okada on bass