CK Listens

Hey there. Back again to close out our look into Mikio Masuda 's catalog. The final 4 albums for today are an improvement over what we heard towards the tail end of our last post. Going to keep this one quick so we can move on.  First up is the 1986 release on the JVC label, Dear Friends . The copy I have here is the reissue with some extra tracks. Mickey is strictly on the piano and is joined by bassist Hideo Kawahara , percussionist Tatsuji Yokoyama and drummer Shingo Okudaira .  This one has a Latin vibe on quite a few tunes and highlights here for me would be "Istanbul" and "Everyday Everynight" and the closing tune "Impromptu In Blue." The following year in 1987, and using the same personnel, Mickey released another album on the JVC label titled Smokin' Night . Nothing Earth shattering here but another acoustic straight ahead album with some Latin vibes to it at times. Highlights for me are "Mbalishu" which features some nice back

Back today for our next installment for Mikio Masuda . We've entered the 80s which is where I typically lose interest but Mickey has some redeemable music from the decade - and some that's not of much interest.  First up we have an album that alluded me for a long time. I finally broke down and bought and ripped the vinyl. Noticed yesterday that 1980's  Silver Shadow is now on streaming which I may have overlooked all this time. Either way, this is another one I really dig. My rip ended up having some quality issues so I found another version to share here. Joining Mickey we have Toshiyuki Honda on alto sax and flute, personal favorite Shunzo Ohno on trumpet and Takayuki Kato on guitar. Mickey used 2 different bassists, Osamu Kawakami and Kenji Takamizu , with percussionist Masato Kawase and drummer Louis de Andrade . All originals here outside of Joe Henderson tune "Inner Urge." First up we have "My Delight" and to be honest, the beginning of the

Back again with our next look into Mikio Masuda 's catalog.  First album for today was released in 1979 on the Electric Bird label. Corazon pays homage to the Carole King song first featured on her Fantas y album, I do believe. Corazon also have an accent over the o but my keyboard hates me today. Joining Mickey we have Anthony Jackson on bass, Sammy Figueroa on percussion with Bernard Purdie on drums. We also have a strings section led by David Mathews ; for a full list of the names please check the discogs link above. This one starts off with great tempo and a Latin vibe in the title track. Mickey's synthesizer is fantastic before switching over to his Rhodes. The full strings section adds a nice element to it, as well. This track does feature some limited vocals in Spanish. The 2 other covers are also highlights. First is the Robert Lamm tune "Another Rainy Day In New York City" which also features limited vocals. The other is the Sadao Watanabe tune &quo

One of my favorite artists from the last couple of years is Osaka-born keyboardist, Mikio Masuda . I'm nearly 100% certain my first time hearing him was on Kohsuke Mine 's excellent album Sunshower , although it could have been Takao Uematsu 's also very enjoyable Straight Ahead album. Either way, Mickey plays an excellent piano and has quite a few quality albums that we'll cover here. As the 80s went on, he began to lose me (like most others) and he eventually returned to a more acoustic sound in the 90s. But I enjoy nearly all of his albums throughout the 70s. I'll share everything I have regardless of era and let you make the call.  The first album we'll look at is from 1974 and released on the East Wind label. Trace features a group of mostly familiar faces. Joining Masuda on piano we have Terumasa Hino on flugelhorn, Takao Uematsu on sax and Hideo Miyata on flute, although each player only appears on 1 track a piece. We also have Tsutomo Okada on bass

After really enjoying Moon Ray I decided to see what else I could drum up from saxophonist Yoshio Otomo . Turns out, Moon Ray is the middle of a trio of late-70s  albums with Otomo as leader. We'll take a look at the other 2 today. First up, we have a quartet album released on the Frasco label in 1976. Joining Yoshio on  Oh! Friends   we have Junichiro Oguchi on piano, Kosugi Satoshi on bass and Fumio Watanabe on drums. Mostly straight ahead stuff like we heard on Moon Ray . We start off with 2 great originals from the group: "Have A Nice Dream" from Otomo and "Pleiades" from Oguchi. A couple of covers follow in a Otomo solo version of Duke Ellington classic "In A Sentimental Mood" and "You're My Everything." This one closes with an excellent ballad from Otomo in "Quiet Blue" which might be the best tune of the album. In 1978, Otomo released another quartet album on the Seven Seas label titled As A Child . Joining him thi

Back again today with 2 more from trombonist Hiroshi Fukumura .  Released in 1981 on the Insights label, Nice Day features all originals from Fukumura. Joining him we have Shuya Sato on alto and soprano saxes, Naoki Kitajima on keyboards, Hiroki Miyano on guitar, Nobuyoshi Ino on bass with Akira Doi on drums. Ino has been featured on a ton of stuff we've covered. Doi we also heard towards the tail end of Isao Suzuki's catalog. Relatively short tunes on this one - all around 6 minutes or less, so not a ton of improvisation. But a pleasant album of light fusion and easy jazz-funk, regardless. About how you'd expect 1981 to sound. I personally dig the opening track "Racing Around" and "Soft Breath Of Air" but my favorite tune on the album is definitely the closing, "Lion's Step." Super funky with a perfect tempo, in my opinion.  Next we find ourselves in 1985 for the NYC recorded, Hot Shot . Looks to be a supporting cast of session musi

Hey there. I have a lot planned over the next few weeks, and for today I'd like to take a quick look at trombonist Hiroshi Fukumura . We've heard him play on a few different occasions; primarily during his time with Native Son , and also on the Sadao Watanabe record Pamoja . He went on to appear on quite a few other Watanabe albums in the second half of the 70s. He released a handful of albums as leader that are all worth a listen, in my opinion.  First for us is the 1973 Three Blind Mice release, Hiroshi Fukumura Quintet , later re-released in 1977 as Morning Flight . Joining Hiroshi, we have fellow trombonist and personal favorite, Shigeharu Mukai . On piano we have Hiroshi Tamura , with  Tsutomu Okada  on bass and Shinji Mori on drums. Okada we heard on Mine 's Out Of Chaos , among others, and Mori we heard on Oran-utan and All Right! from Isao Suzuki .  This one starts out with a nice Mukai composition that would eventually become the title of the album. Fukumura c

Good morning. I've been digging through a few different artists' catalogs and have some deep dive posts on the way. I'm not quite ready to start any of them but in the meantime here is a nice little album I found along the way. While listening through fan-favorite Tsuyoshi Yamamoto 's catalog, I found he played piano on this album from saxophonist Yoshio Otomo . Released on Three Blind Mice in 1977, Moon Ray pays homage to the Artie Shaw tune of the same name.  Yoshio strictly employs the alto sax on this one and is joined by Tamio Kawabata on bass who we encountered during our look at Native Son . We also have drummer "Jess" Kurata who appears on a Mickey Masuda album we will explore soon enough. Rounding out the quartet is the previously mentioned pianist Yamamoto who has a splendid catalog - if you're unfamiliar, we will soon cover his work, as well.  Mostly straight forward, acoustic stuff on this one - and Otomo has a beautiful sound on alto. Ve

Back today with a quick one I really enjoy. In my pursuit of Fumio Karashima albums and appearances, I came across this album from trombonist Teruhiko Kataoka from 1977. Love Walking is a nice little album released on Whynot , featuring Karashima on piano, George Ohtsuka on drums and Kiyoto Fujiwara on bass. Tracks 3 and 5 also featuring an additional trombonist in Osamu Shiomura , who you may remember from our post on Arakawa Band . Looking a little closer at Kataoka's catalog, this looks to be his only release as leader. He spent much of his playing career with  Toshiyuki Miyama and The New Herd . Admittedly I'm not very familiar with their catalog but I have heard some of their albums with Chikara Ueda  - which are pretty great.  This one starts off with a great title track - a tune from fellow New Herdsman, Kozaburo Yamaki . Next is a pretty nice rendition of "You Don't Know What Love Is" followed by a nice Shiomura tune in "Isolation." Final tw