CK Listens

What's up everyone? It's been a busy few days but I have a lot of great music to share. Today we're going to shift away from Japan for a few and take a look at NY-based jazz-funk/fusion group, Caldera . We'll take a look at their 4 album run thru the second half of the 1970s.  The group hailed from different parts of Latin America, as well as the US. I'll cover the changes to personnel as we go, as usual. Often times heavy on guitar and keys, we also have great sax play along with plenty of percussion. A favorite of mine. An obvious Latin-influence, but not what I would describe as Latin-jazz, by any means.  First up for today we have the self-titled,  Caldera from 1976. From the group's onset, we have Argentinian pianist,  Eduardo del Barro , US-born saxophonist, Steve Tavaglione , Costa Rican guitarist, Jorge Strunz , US-born bassist, Dean Cortez , and Cuban drummer, Carlos Vega . We also have Brazilian trombonist, Raul de Souza , Brazilian percussionist, Rob

This will be a slightly longer post because I'd like to wrap up our look into Isao Suzuki. We have a few from the 80s to look at and 1 from the 2000s. I'm going to keep it short and sweet for each release so we can keep it moving.  First up we have 1980's Bass Club , which is essentially a duo bass album with Red Mitchell . There is a piano presence on a couple of the tracks from Tsuyoshi Yamamoto . All standards here with my favorite being a nice rendition of "Yesterdays".  Another duo album is next for us, this time featuring pianist, Kunihiko Sugano . Sincerely Yours is also comprised of mostly standards. A relatively calm vibe throughout on this one and I find Sugano to be an excellent pianist. Favorites for me are "The Midnight Sun Will Never Set" and the closing tune, "Goodbye." Next up for us we have Four Wings , also from 1980. Here we have the well traveled Hidehiko Matsumoto on saxophone and flute, Sugano again joins on piano and Ge

Good afternoon. Back again today to continue our look at Isao Suzuki's catalog. We're nearing the end of what I have - so I'm going to try to wrap up over the next couple of days.  First for today we have a nice little album, albeit with limited information, in 1979's  PCM vs Direct: Summertime . The reason for the title is due to one side being mastered by PCM and the other by Direct Cutting. This one was released as the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio with Isao Suzuki. While I'm not 100% certain, I believe Shinji Mori is handling the drums here, with Yamamoto on piano and Isao on bass. Either way, 3 nice renditions of some standards here with the highlight being the title track, Summertime, from the legend George Gershwin .  Next up we have another release from 1979, duo album A Day Of The Sun with Masahiko Togashi . Both artists employ a variety of instruments on this experimental/free jazz album. Isao on his usual double bass, piccolo bass, cello, Solina synthesizer

While getting this completed by the end of the week now seems unlikely, I hope everyone is enjoying Isao Suzuki's work to this point. Over the next couple of posts, I'm going to finish up what I have for the 1970's. I may pivot to some other music before diving into the 1980s. We'll see.  Anyway, first up for today is another album that I enjoyed more than I expected. In 1978, Isao paired with Noriko Miyamoto for an album titled, Push . While this album is pretty readily available, I went ahead and included it here along with an instrumental version for those that also don't enjoy vocals. I must say though, Noriko has a beautiful voice.  Joining her and Isao, we have  Tatsuhiko Hizawa  on  bass,  Masanori Sasaji on keys, Yuji Karaki on guitar, Tatsuji Yokoyama on percussion and Akira Doi on drums.  The 2nd track is an instrumental by design and is a nice version of the standard "Stella By Starlight." This album is a lot funkier than I expected and the 2

Hey folks, back again with another round of Isao Suzuki albums. We're starting to get into the material that I find the most enjoyable.  First up for today is Isao's only release as a sextet, 1976's Ako's Dream . Joining Isao and his cello, we have Watanabe again on guitar, along with guitarist  Kazumasa Akiyama . We also have Motohiko Hamase on bass, Tsuyoshi Yamamoto on keys and Akira Doi on drums.  We start off with 2 originals, the first being the somewhat spacey title track, followed by the swinging "Isao Family." You'll need a dance partner for that one. Next up we have my favorite tune from the album, an excellent rendition of "Feel Like Making Love" and we close with Benny Goodman 's "Seven Come Eleven." Excellent album through and through and one I revisit pretty frequently.  Missing here is 1976's Hip Dancin' so if anyone can help out with an assist, I'd be truly grateful. On to 1977 we go with  Cadillac Wom

Today we'll take a look at the next round of albums from Isao Suzuki.  First we have 1975's Orang-utan  and there's a little bit of a discrepancy regarding personnel on discogs vs the liner notes of the album. I'm going to stick to the album notes. Isao is here of course on bass, cello and electric piano, Osamu Kawakami is on double bass, Kenji Mori is on sax, flute and bass clarinet, Kazumi Watanabe on guitar and Shinji Mori is on drums. Track 2 features Mari Nakamoto on vocals. We'll have more from her shortly. Orang-utan opens with a nice blues track, "Blue Road" featuring Isao on electric piano. Next we have a rendition of the Shirley Horn tune, "Where Are You Going" featuring Mari Nakamoto, as mentioned. She has a wonderful voice but as I am not a huge fan of vocals, I've included an instrumental version, as well. It's not an overly advanced method but it works.  Next up is the standard, "My One And Only Love" with Isao

I'd like to take the next few posts to take a closer look at the work of bassist extraordinaire, Isao Suzuki . I spent a good portion of 2023 listening to his albums but I hadn't done a chronological deep dive yet like I like to. It wasn't until I dove in that I realized that aside from the double bass, piccolo bass and cello, Isao also played the keys and vibes, at times.  Considered the "Jazz Godfather" in Japan, Isao has a vast catalog of his own albums, as well as a multitude of appearances on other artists' projects. Some albums are in fact on streaming, but due to the amount of files I have here, I'm just going to cover everything I have so far. I'm also going to try to keep each summary brief since there are 20+ albums to cover. I had to make a spreadsheet to keep them straight ffs. And I'm still not certain I have them in proper order but I did my best.  First up, we have 1973's Blow Up . While Isao is on bass and cello, we also have f

I couldn't begin to list all of the appearances Yoshio Suzuki has made over the years - but the Nagano-born bassist has a pair of albums, Friends and Matsuri , that we'll take a look at here. I believe the only appearance he has made on this page thus far is on Kohsuke Mine's 2nd Album .  First up, we have 1973's absolute gem of an album in Friends . We will quickly recognize the names of his supporting cast in saxophonist Kohsuke Mine , pianist Takehiro Honda , drummer Hiroshi Murakami , and making an appearance on "Samba de Chico" is flautist, Hideo Miyata . We have 5 tracks here and as far as I can tell, all are original compositions from Suzuki. Personal favorites are the opening, title track, along with "Burning Point" and "K's Waltz." This album mostly has a hard bop vibe and the playing from everyone is superb throughout.  Next, we have 1979's Matsuri , recorded in NYC in 1979.  Accompanying Yoshio are a group of Americans

Apparently I listened to 1,018 different artists in 2023. Nearly all jazz in one shape or form. Some were artists I was already familiar with but I'd bet the majority were new to me. A favorite of mine I stumbled upon is what I'll cover today. Arakawa Band , lead by flautist and saxophonist  Tatsuhiko Arakawa , absolutely blew me away when I listened to their limited catalog.  Turns out, the group released two albums under the name The Great American Music Band before changing their name. Both albums were released in 1979 and I'm not 100% certain which album was released first. Based on sound alone, my guess is Over The Sky was the first release. It's a little more straight ahead and less funky than the remaining material which leads me to believe it was the group's debut. Quite the ensemble here:  Saxophone, flute, clarinet: Tatsuhiko Arakawa Saxophone, flute: Yasumasa Kikuchi Trombone: Osamu Shiomura Trumpet, Flugelhorn: Hitoshi Okano , Kenji Nakazawa , Toshio A