Native Son Part 3

Happy New Year. 

Back with our final installment of Native Son's catalog. Excited to finish this up because I have some other releases I'd like to share.  

First up, we go back a couple of years to cover the group's 2 live albums. After their first 2 studio albums, the group released 1980's Coast To Coast - Live In USA. Lineup here is the same as the self-titled 2nd studio album. Honda, Mine, Murakami, Ohde, Kinoshita and Fukumura. Amazing stuff here all-around. Kinoshita's bass playing stood out to me - especially after spending time with their latter, more mundane albums. It was nice to return to the sound that originally jumped out to me.

After the group's superb 3rd studio album, Shining, they released their second live album in 1983's Carnival - Live at Montreux. Lineup here features bassist Gregg Lee from the Resort and Gumbo albums, as well as drummer Louis DeAndrade, who I'm unfamiliar with. Louis doesn't appear on any other albums so perhaps his inclusion was simply for the tour, etc. Only 4 tracks here that are all on point - including the closing "Isn't She Lovely" from the legend, Stevie Wonder. 

The final release in the catalog comes with a slight name change to the group. Despite no changes in the lineup, 1987's Aguncha was released as Takehiro Honda and Native Son. A little peppy and mostly pedestrian music here. The only track of potential merit is "P.J." with some slight recognition for the following track, "Flyer's Road." Unlikely to revisit this one. 

That pretty much sums up everything for Native Son. Next up, we'll take a look at some of Kohsuke Mine's solo work.