Takeo Moriyama

Good morning. Today I want to share a little bit of music from another drummer, Takeo Moriyama. Many are familiar with his albums Smile and East Plants, both of which are pretty readily available. I have a few here that we'll look at that I really enjoy. All 3 are relatively straightforward hard-bop sounding records - without any of the "smooth" sounds that began to emerge in the late 70s and certainly into the 80s.

First up, released in 1977, we have the live recording, Flush Up. Joining Takeo, we have saxophonist Tomoki Takahashi, who we should remember from our previous post on Ryojiro Furusawa, another familiar face in bassist, Hideaki Mochizuki, and the excellent pianist, Fumio Itabashi. The opening, title track, is 18 minutes of absolute ruckus. All 4 players shine and Takeo's drum solo is worth the price of admission. Takahashi also shreds on this one. The type of energy I love. Next up, we have a great rendition of standard "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise" followed by another nice tune in "Yellow Bear." 

The following year, in 1978, Takeo's quartet was joined by trombonist, Shigeharu Mukai, for the album, Hush-A-Bye. (Most of Mukai's incredible catalog is available digitally, but I believe I have a few to share.) Mochizuki and Itabashi return but we have a change at saxophone, with Katsumi Odagiri joining the group. Great energy again as we start off with "Sunrise." We can exhale a bit for the following title track, which features great playing from Odagiri on tenor. We close with a nice track with a touch more pep in "Snow Tiger." Sad to learn that only 2 short years later, Odagiri passed away at the age of 31.

We skip up a few years to 1982 for our next release, My Dear. I'm not entirely in love with the quality of this recording but it's listenable. Mochizuki again joins on bass, and this time we have 2 saxophonists rounding out the quartet. We have Mikinori Fujiwara on tenor and soprano and we have Toshihiko Inoue on tenor. All 4 tracks also happen to be Inoue compositions. Great energy to begin with and Takeo is shining as usual on "Non Check." The title track slows things down a bit but features a nice melody from the sax players and great drumming again from Takeo. Another short release with great energy and musicianship throughout. 

That wraps up a quick look at Takeo Moriyama. Hopefully his drumming is as impressive to you as it is me. If you like what you heard here, be sure to check Smile and East Plants.