Isao Suzuki Part 1

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 fellow bassist Takashi Mizuhashi, wonderful pianist Kunihiko Sugano and drummer George Otsuka. Pretty straightforward album here with 6 tracks total. Personal favorites are the title track, along with the closing track "Low Flight" - both originals from Isao.

Next, we have 1974's Blue City. Joining again is pianist Kunihiko Sugano. Handling additional bass duties is Nobuyoshi Ino, who we may remember from our post on Hidefumi Toki. We also have legendary guitarist (and thankfully a recurring band member) Kazumi Watanabe, and drummer Tetsujiro Obara. Again, a relatively straight forward release with personal favorites being the middle 2 songs, original "45th Street At 8th Avenue" and the classic, "Play Fiddle Play."

Next up for us we have a live recording from the Toshi Center Hall in Tokyo in 1974. Now's The Time features quite the group of personnel across the 3 tracks. First, on the standard "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" we have Isoo Fukui on bass, splendid pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto and Obara returns on drums. The same group returns next for the Yamamoto tune "Midnight Sugar" and we also have Sunao Wada on guitar. Naturally, Yamamoto shines here. 

The real show stopper here is the final tune, "Now's The Time" from the legend Charlie Parker. Along to pay homage to the great, we have 4 total sax players with 2 on alto and 2 on tenor. On alto we have Kenji Mori and Yoshio Otomo and on tenor we have Mabumi Yamaguchi (who has a trio of album I absolutely love. All 3 are available but I may share here just b/c they're so good) and Takao Uematsu (who also has a great jazz-funk album from 1977, Straight Ahead.) We have Mitsuaki Furuno on bass, Otsuka again on drums and Toshiyuki Daitoku on keys. 

To finish today's post, we have 1974's All Right. Isao shows off his many talents here along with Watanabe on guitar. On electric bass we have Akira Okazawa, on double bass we have Osamu Kawakami and on drums we have Shinji Mori. Biggest takeaways here are the fantastic opening track "Nemuro" and Isao playing what seems like every instrument in some fashion. He picks up the bass, cello, drums, Hammond B3 organ, electric piano and the vibraphone. Truly remarkable. Kazumi Watanabe also shines throughout on guitar - even making an appearance with his acoustic on the standard, "Time After Time."

I hope anyone that stumbles upon this enjoys the opening of Isao's catalog. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to post the 2nd installment.