Hiroshi Fukumura

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 composition "Imagination, Opus 1" follows and slows the tempo down a bit. Three covers to close but they're all quite nice. "Winter Song" from John Surman is followed by "Cousin Mary" from little known saxophonist John Coltrane. Interesting to hear this one without a saxophone. Next is the fantastic Henry Mancini tune "Soldier In The Rain" which closes this one out quite nicely. Top to bottom, a great album.

Next up we travel to 1978 for the Flying Disk release with saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, Hunt Up Wind. What originally lead me to Fukumura and this release specifically, is that it was arranged (aside from track 5) by keyboardist Hiromasa Suzuki, one of the first names in Japanese jazz whose music really stuck with me. Probably ought to dedicate a post to him at some point.

Joining Fukumura and Watanabe, we have Don Grusin on keys, Chuck Rainey on bass, Cornell Dupree on guitar, Paulinho Da Costa on percussion with the funky Harvey Mason on drums. 

The time that has passed is evident right out of the gate with this one. The opening title track has a more jazz-funk vibe to it than what we heard on Morning Flight. Unfortunately the 2nd and 3rd tunes don't really do it for me - one is a little too smooth for me and the other has a somewhat generic island sound to it. Michael Franks tune "Mr. Blue" begins to the right the ship followed by "Pogo" which is a funky, bluesy tune from Watanabe. But the real reason I come back to this album is the Fukumura original "White Clouds" which has a fantastic groove to it. Dave Grusin (older brother to Don) tune "Captain Caribe" is a nice uptempo, bouncy track before we close with "To Say Goodbye," a ballad that again closes the album very nicely.

I have a couple more to share - I will try to finish them up tomorrow. Enjoy!