Shigeharu Mukai

We've heard trombonist Shigeharu Mukai featured on a Ryojiro Furusawa album as well as a Takeo Moriyama album. Most of Mukai's catalog is available digitally, and for now we'll take a look at the lone album I have that isn't. I'm considering switching things up and sharing albums that I love, regardless of their availability on streaming, but we shall see.

Released in 1976, Favorite Time features a great group of players alongside Mukai. We have Kazumi Watanbe on guitar, Fumio Itabashi on piano, Hideaki Mochizuki on bass and American Oliver Johnson on drums. All standards on this one but we won't let that deter us as there are some well played renditions here. 

We open with a nice version of Coltrane's arrangement of "Afro Blue" - which is an interesting listen with no sax in the group. Watanabe and Mukai follow on a duo rendition of "Old Folks" which is the closest thing to a ballad on the album. After "Autumn Leaves" we get a great offering of another Coltrane tune in "Impressions" that features great playing from Itabashi, Watanabe and Johnson. If anything, this is worth a listen on it's own. We close with a nice rendition of the Ellington classic, "In A Sentimental Mood" and another tune I enjoy in "Stella By Starlight." Relatively straightforward release that is a nice listen from start to finish. 

Mukai has a fabulous catalog starting just prior to this album and extending into the 1980s. If you dig this one, be sure to check some of his other work. 

Enjoy!