CK Listens

Back again with more from Teruo Nakamura . I have a few more albums than I realized so this might be a 3 or 4 post series.  First for today is the 1977 release on Polydor , Manhattan Special . This album was also released as Songs Of The Birds . I think this might be the reason I stumbled upon Teruo because Herbie Hancock is featured here on Rhodes and synthesizer. As usual, there is a sleuth of musicians featured so I'm not certain which tunes Herbie is playing on. Please check the link if you'd like to see the full breakdown of personnel.  This one starts of with the great title tune and doesn't really disappoint. I especially dig "Firefly" and "Wiggle Worm" which features some great synthesizer play so perhaps this is where Herbie jumped in. There's also some great Rhodes play on the short tune "Mr. Cherry and Mr. T" before we close with "Love Is A Reflection In The Mirrors Behind Your Eyes/Sunrise In Africa." Quite the title

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

After really enjoying Moon Ray I decided to see what else I could drum up from saxophonist Yoshio Otomo . Turns out, Moon Ray is the middle of a trio of late-70s  albums with Otomo as leader. We'll take a look at the other 2 today. First up, we have a quartet album released on the Frasco label in 1976. Joining Yoshio on  Oh! Friends   we have Junichiro Oguchi on piano, Kosugi Satoshi on bass and Fumio Watanabe on drums. Mostly straight ahead stuff like we heard on Moon Ray . We start off with 2 great originals from the group: "Have A Nice Dream" from Otomo and "Pleiades" from Oguchi. A couple of covers follow in a Otomo solo version of Duke Ellington classic "In A Sentimental Mood" and "You're My Everything." This one closes with an excellent ballad from Otomo in "Quiet Blue" which might be the best tune of the album. In 1978, Otomo released another quartet album on the Seven Seas label titled As A Child . Joining him thi

Back again today with 2 more from trombonist Hiroshi Fukumura .  Released in 1981 on the Insights label, Nice Day features all originals from Fukumura. Joining him we have Shuya Sato on alto and soprano saxes, Naoki Kitajima on keyboards, Hiroki Miyano on guitar, Nobuyoshi Ino on bass with Akira Doi on drums. Ino has been featured on a ton of stuff we've covered. Doi we also heard towards the tail end of Isao Suzuki's catalog. Relatively short tunes on this one - all around 6 minutes or less, so not a ton of improvisation. But a pleasant album of light fusion and easy jazz-funk, regardless. About how you'd expect 1981 to sound. I personally dig the opening track "Racing Around" and "Soft Breath Of Air" but my favorite tune on the album is definitely the closing, "Lion's Step." Super funky with a perfect tempo, in my opinion.  Next we find ourselves in 1985 for the NYC recorded, Hot Shot . Looks to be a supporting cast of session musi

Hey there. I have a lot planned over the next few weeks, and for today I'd like to take a quick look at trombonist Hiroshi Fukumura . We've heard him play on a few different occasions; primarily during his time with Native Son , and also on the Sadao Watanabe record Pamoja . He went on to appear on quite a few other Watanabe albums in the second half of the 70s. He released a handful of albums as leader that are all worth a listen, in my opinion.  First for us is the 1973 Three Blind Mice release, Hiroshi Fukumura Quintet , later re-released in 1977 as Morning Flight . Joining Hiroshi, we have fellow trombonist and personal favorite, Shigeharu Mukai . On piano we have Hiroshi Tamura , with  Tsutomu Okada  on bass and Shinji Mori on drums. Okada we heard on Mine 's Out Of Chaos , among others, and Mori we heard on Oran-utan and All Right! from Isao Suzuki .  This one starts out with a nice Mukai composition that would eventually become the title of the album. Fukumura c

Good morning. I've been digging through a few different artists' catalogs and have some deep dive posts on the way. I'm not quite ready to start any of them but in the meantime here is a nice little album I found along the way. While listening through fan-favorite Tsuyoshi Yamamoto 's catalog, I found he played piano on this album from saxophonist Yoshio Otomo . Released on Three Blind Mice in 1977, Moon Ray pays homage to the Artie Shaw tune of the same name.  Yoshio strictly employs the alto sax on this one and is joined by Tamio Kawabata on bass who we encountered during our look at Native Son . We also have drummer "Jess" Kurata who appears on a Mickey Masuda album we will explore soon enough. Rounding out the quartet is the previously mentioned pianist Yamamoto who has a splendid catalog - if you're unfamiliar, we will soon cover his work, as well.  Mostly straight forward, acoustic stuff on this one - and Otomo has a beautiful sound on alto. Ve

Back today with a quick one I really enjoy. In my pursuit of Fumio Karashima albums and appearances, I came across this album from trombonist Teruhiko Kataoka from 1977. Love Walking is a nice little album released on Whynot , featuring Karashima on piano, George Ohtsuka on drums and Kiyoto Fujiwara on bass. Tracks 3 and 5 also featuring an additional trombonist in Osamu Shiomura , who you may remember from our post on Arakawa Band . Looking a little closer at Kataoka's catalog, this looks to be his only release as leader. He spent much of his playing career with  Toshiyuki Miyama and The New Herd . Admittedly I'm not very familiar with their catalog but I have heard some of their albums with Chikara Ueda  - which are pretty great.  This one starts off with a great title track - a tune from fellow New Herdsman, Kozaburo Yamaki . Next is a pretty nice rendition of "You Don't Know What Love Is" followed by a nice Shiomura tune in "Isolation." Final tw

Good morning. Back again with our next look at Fumio Karashima's work.  First for today we have another acoustic trio album in 1981's A Child In The Wind . Mainstay George Otsuka is here again on drums and this time we have American Richard Davis on bass. All originals on this one and we again have a pretty straightforward sound from the trio. Davis adds the bow into the mix on "Portrait" and I particularly enjoy the title track. Nothing earth-shattering here but a nice album.  Next up we have yet another acoustic trio album in 1982's Elegant Evening . This time we have Motohiko Hino on drums with Ikuo Sakurai on bass. All originals here with the exception of the final 2 tunes. "After Love Emptiness" from  Bobby Thomas  and "Nefertiti" from legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter . I personally really dig the somber vibe of "Ancient Tales." I also really enjoy the B side to this one - listed as "Medley" it's comprised of

Hey there. Today we'll continue our look into pianist Fumio Karashima.  The first album for today, Moonflower , was released in 1978 as Fumio Karashima Meets Elvin Jones . Joining Fumio and the legendary drummer, we have bassist Andy McCloud who accompanied Elvin on many of his late 70s, early 80s recordings. More of what we're used to on this one with mostly straight ahead sounds from the trio. The opening title track is quite nice followed by a nice rendition of standard, "My Funny Valentine." Original "Friday Night" is next which picks up the tempo just a touch and features quite a bit of soloing from Jones. Another original from Fumio follows in "Bitter Waltz" before we close with the Coltrane tune "Bessie's Blues." Altogether, a very nice little record. Next for us is our first quartet album in 1979's Hot Islands . Joining Fumio on this one we have saxophonist Mabumi Yamaguchi , bassist and  Weather Report founding member, 

For the next few posts I'd like to take a look at some albums from pianist Fumio Karashima . We encountered him on  Mabumi Yamaguchi 's After The Rain album. The collection I have (10 albums total) is mostly made up of acoustic trio albums - and I find Fumio to have a very tasteful and accessible playing style.  First up is 1976's Piranha . A mostly straightforward album although Fumio's playing sometimes has a classical vibe to it, in my opinion. Especially on the opening tune "Little Island." Joining the pianist we have bassist Isao Suzuki (which is what lead me here originally) and drummer Jimmy Hopps . Favorites here are previously mentioned "Little Island" as well as J.J. Johnson tune "Lament." The closing Karashima tune "Blue-Th-Ree" is also quite nice.  Next up for us is another trio album. 1977's Landscape features bassist George Mraz and excellent drummer Motohiko Hino  who we've seen quite a few times now . A

Another quick post for today as I stumbled across another Isao Suzuki album that we didn't previously cover. Recorded live in 1998 on 2 separate occasions at the Aketa No Mise club in Tokyo, New  was released on the backend of Isao's career as the Isao Suzuki Group. Joining Isao we have guitarist Takayuki Kato (tracks 2-4) and drummer Shota Koyama . Track 5 also features pianist Yoriyuki Harada . This one is relatively straightforward throughout but does have some moments that venture into the free jazz realm. Isao opens with a solo bass tune "Alone Together" and the rest of the trio joins in for "Blues for Isao" next. "Jump Monk Jump" has a nice tempo to it followed by "Yesterday" that brings the tempo way back down. "1998 All Open" is 21-minutes long and is the most improvised tune of the bunch. A nearly solo version of "Summertime" closes things out for this one.  Nothing groundbreaking here necessarily, but for t

Hey there. Going to squeeze in a quick one for today. Hadn't listened to this album in a while and revisited it over the weekend. Super enjoyable record from Belgian guitarist  Philip Catherine . We heard Philip on the  Alphonse Mouzon  record  In Search Of A Dream  from our last post. For me, at some point I learned about keyboardist  Joachim Kuhn , which led me to Catherine and Mouzon. Great vibes on this one throughout. Guitar-led fusion, jazz-funk, jazz-rock - however you describe it - it's a solid album through and through.  Released in 1972,  Stream  consists of 12 quick-hitting tracks but the version I have here has 3 bonus tunes, as well. Looks like it must be the 2017 cd re-issue. Joining the guitarist we have keyboardist  Marc Moulin , bassist  Freddy Deronde  and drummer  Freddy Rothier .  A lot of good stuff on this one. I really dig Moulin tune "November" and Catherine tune "Foire" and the Charles Bobbit tune "Give It Up Or Turn It Aloose.&