Terumasa Hino - 1970s

Hey there. Back today with our first installment into Terumasa Hino's 1970s catalog. Hino recorded a massive amount of albums throughout the decade. Many were released in the same year. I haven't tried to keep any chronological order outside of the year it was released. 

One quick note regarding the files themselves: Occasionally you'll see an mp3 folder inside an album's folder. This is due to certain flac files being too large to be uploaded to YouTube Music, which is the app I use for music. If you don't use YTM, this probably is a non-issue for you. Anyway, let's get to it.

To begin the new decade, we have our first taste of free jazz with 1970’s Journey To Air. One tune per side listed as “Journey To Air 1” & “Journey To Air 2” and based on personnel, this looks to be 2 groups that may have recorded on separate occasions. On sax we have Gary Pribec, PeteYellin, Dave Liebman & Steve Grossman, with Grossman and Yellin also playing flute. On bass we have Dave Holland, Lanny Fields and personal favorite, Teruo Nakamura. On drums we again have Moto and also Bobby Moses. An additional trumpeter is here in Olu Dara and we also have Mike Garson on piano.

At a different time in my life I really dug free jazz but it’s not as much my go-to as it once was. This one isn’t too scattered with side b being a littler tamer than side a. Not a bad album by any means, especially if you dig this sound.

Next, and also released in 1970, is Alone Together. Recorded in NYC, joining Hino on trumpet and flugelhorn, we have Steve Grossman on soprano and tenor. An excellent player we’ve encountered a few times and on the previous album. We also have Harold Mabern on keys, Richard Davis on bass with Moto on drums.

Not as scattered as our previous listen, but more of a post-bop sound I guess. After an excellent rendition of the standard, title tune on side A, we have Hino originals on side B in, “Satsuki” and “Make Left.” My favorite here is “Satsuki” which features great play from Grossman and Mabern.

Also released in 1970, and I think my first encounter with Hino, is Into The Heaven. Another Quintet album here with Hiromasa Suzuki on keys, Takeru Muraoka on sax, Kunimitsu Inaba on bass and Moto on drums. There are some discrepancies on track listings but what I show are all originals here with side A being the title track with side B being “Feeling Blue As You Are Feel” and “Circus.”

The opening, title tune might be our best composition yet from Hino. Starts off very nicely and develops a nice tempo with Hino and Suzuki complementing one another. Muraoka enters about halfway through and also plays terrifically. After a quick Suzuki part the band joins all in to close this one out. Great tune. “Feeling Blue” is a very nice straight-ahead, walking tune with great playing across the board. We close with the ballad “Circus” and we have a great album in the books.

We move into 1971 for our next release in live album Hino AtBerlin Jazz Festival ’71. A slightly new look here with a quintet made up of Takao Uematsu on saxophone, Kiyoshi Sugimoto on guitar, Yoshio Ikeda on bass with Moto on drums.

Mostly freer stuff here again and an overall great performance. Personal favorite here would be the third tune, “Ode To Workman” with Sugimoto giving it a psych-rock vibe during his solo. And we’re on to the next.

Love Nature is next for us and also released in 1971. Another US recording for Hino and joining him we have the great Gary Bartz on sax, Sugimoto on guitar, another great in Reggie Workman on bass with Eric Gravatt on drums.

I would describe this one as hard bop leaning into free jazz. It’s scattered at times but also still maintains some swing. Bartz plays hard, as does Hino. Sugimoto plays quite nicely on side b, “Sister Mayumi.” We also get to hear Moto open up on drums a bit.

That’s our first 5 from the 1970s and we’ll leave it there for now. I’ll be back with the next 5 very soon.

Terumasa Hino - 1960s

Let us begin our deep dive into trumpeter Terumasa Hino, and since we're dealing with a massive catalog here, I'll try to be quick with each album. I think we can squeeze all of the 1960s into one post.

With that said, let's start with the 1967 release Alone, Alone And Alone. We have a quartet here with Yuji Ohno on piano, Kunimitsu Inaba on bass with brother to Terumasa, Motohiko Hino, on drums.

A straight-ahead album here and this one swings throughout, with crisp playing from Hino and Ohno. We have the title track which is quite nice but my favorite here is the excellent rendition of Gershwin's "Summertime." A very nice listen to start us off.

The next I have, and released as Terumasa Hino And His Group, is the 1968 release Feelin' Good. We have a pretty sizeable personnel group highlighted by Takeru Muraoka on sax, Masabumi Kikuchi on piano and arrangement, Hiroshi Suzuki on trombone and Yoshiaki Masuo on guitar. Feel free to check the link for the full list. 

This record having a larger ensemble obviously changes up our sound from AAA a bit. A bit more bluesy and soulful, with a touch of big band to it. Reminds me a little of the Gil Evans With Masabumi Kikuchi record we listened to recently.

All covers on this one and while there's not really a weak point, my favorite on this one is the Duke Pearson tune "The Magilla." 2 for 2.

Into 1969, we take a little bit of a turn towards fusion and my favorite album of the early candidates in Hi-Nology. This time as the Terumasa Hino Quintet, we again have Inaba on bass with Moto on drums. Muraoka is here on sax and this time on keys we have Hiromasa Suzuki. 

A similar sound here to Miles at the time, or the Eddie Henderson and Herbie albums we listened to right around this time frame, 69-71. This is excellent stuff. Difficult to choose a favorite here but I do really dig the 3 Hino tunes here, 1, 3 & 4. The other going to Muraoka.

Next up for us is the 1969 live album, Swing Journal Jazz Workshop 1 – Terumasa Hino Concert, recorded at the Ginza Yamaha Hall. When I visited Japan, I stayed in the Ginza district in Tokyo. I wonder if this venue was nearby. 

A 3 tune affair and this time around we again have Hiromasa Suzuki on piano, Hiroshi Suzuki on trombone, Muraoka on tenor sax, Inaba on bass with Moto on drums. On side B we have 2 additional trumpeters in Koji Hatori and Tetsuo Fushimi, another trombonist in Yasushi Ichiura and additional sax players in Sigeo Suzuki on alto and Shunzo Sunahara on baritone. We also have the excellent guitarist Kiyoshi Sugimoto on hand.

On side A from the quintet, we have “The Shadow Of Your Smile” from John Mandel, composer of “Suicide Is Painless”, along with Hino original “Night Dreamer.” Side B, as the Terumasa Hino Orchestra, is the Norio Maeda tune “Slobber.” My preference here is side B which has a bit more pep than side A. Another solid recording.

Next up for us and also released in 1969 is the Hino=Kikuchi Quintet album we covered during our look into Kikuchi’s catalog. The same faces support Hino and Kikuchi with Muraoka on sax, Inaba on bass with Moto on drums.

All Kikuchi originals here and the sound is mostly crisp, straight-ahead stuff. Personal favorites are still “Ideal Portrait” and “Long Trip.”

That’s a wrap for our 1960s edition. The 70s are chocked full of albums and we will pick Hino back up very soon. Enjoy!

Hideo Shiraki Quintet + 3 Koto Girls - Sakura Sakura (1965) & Introducing Terumasa Hino

There are few artists we’ve listened to who’s catalogs touch on nearly every facet of jazz. The closest I would say so far would be our posts on Herbie Hancock.

Next we will begin a deep dive into famed trumpeter Terumasa Hino. His catalog spans 6 decades and we'll hear nearly every sound in jazz. To break things up a bit, we’ll cover each decade separately and work in some short posts in between.

Before we begin our quest, we’re going to start with an album from 1965 that features Hino as a sideman. It’s an album that I was unsure of as the first tune begins rather softly, but this album turned out to be a super pleasant listen.

Hideo Shiraki was a Japanese drummer mostly active in the late-50s and 60s. In 1965, as the Hideo Shiraki Quintet + 3 Koto Girls, he released an album titled Sakura Sakura. The quintet is made up of Hino on trumpet, our friend Takeru Muraoka on flute and sax, Yuzuru Sera on piano, Hachiro Kurita on bass with Shiraki on drums. The 3 Koto girls are Keiko Nosaka, Kinuko Shurane and Sachiko Miyamoto.

As I mentioned, this one starts off somewhat softly with the title track, which is mostly a koto and drums tune as far as I can tell. Muraoka is featured next and plays wonderfully on "Yosakoi-Bushi" which is a quintet only tune. "Yamanaka Bushi" features the entire ensemble and Muraoka again plays well with Hino also soloing quite nicely. We also get a nice drum solo from Shiraki. 

The peppy "Matsuri No Genzo" follows, and we get to hear Muraoka on the flute. Sera also plays quite well on this one and we get another drum solo. We get one of Hino’s signature tunes, and the title of our first album we’ll cover, in "Alone, Alone and Alone." As expected, Hino plays wonderfully. This one is also a quartet tune with Muraoka falling out. Same goes for the relatively tame "Suwu" that closes this one out. It develops about halfway through. A nice album to begin our journey. 

Next up. Terumasa Hino – 1960s edition.

Fal Frett - Part 2

Hey there. Back again today and lucky for us I was able to locate the remainder of the Fal Frett catalog. I also made a mistake in the last post. The label is from France but the band itself is from Martinique. 

Starting with 1978's Fal Frett 2, the band started to incorporate vocals and I made instrumentals for each album. I think they came out OK. This is my 3rd time through the catalog and I'll be going over each album with the instrumentals in mind. The vocals aren't bad by any means, and are actually somewhat smooth, albeit in French, which I don't understand. I just prefer instrumentals. 

The same band returns with the addition of flautist, Robin Vautor and percussionist Ralph Thamar. I would describe this as light fusion and it reminds me of some of the CTI releases from the same timeframe. I start really digging this one around the 3rd tune, "Quadrille", a pretty bouncy tune which features some great play from the percussionists. "Ronde Sentimentale" develops into a nice tune as well with Jacky Bernard shining on keys. This one closes with an excellent tune in "Dave" which features great complementary play between the flute and sax. We also have some nice play on the synthesizer from Jacky. 

With that we move on to Fal Frett 3, released in 1982. We have the same group of personnel that we heard on the previous album. The band really sets the tone with the second tune here, "Ziriguidum." A very groovy tune with great play from Monville and Jacky Bernard. A little reminiscent of Bob James; I can dig it. "Zoubi" follows which features absolutely great stuff on flute from Vautor and Jacky on Rhodes. Another solid tune in "Veronique" follows with more great playing all around. "Chal' Babi" and "Marius" close this one out - both solid tunes, as well. Monville dominates "Marius" and we have another album in the books. 

The next release comes in 1983 and is a self-titled release, the same as the debut album. I've tagged it here as Fal Frett 4 due to YTM issues when I uploaded everything. The group added a second keyboardist in Phil Paulo and Nicol Bernard also plays some vibes which I believe we've only heard one other time.

This one starts off rather synthy with "Contemplation Pipiri" but the track really shines when they pivot to the Rhodes about midway through. "Gato - Sisson" might be my favorite tune of the catalog. A very bouncy, funky feel-good tune with great flute play. This one closes with another strong tune in "Cinco Ploumasse" which features some nice work on the vibes as well as the synthesizer. Not as consistently good as the first 3 we've heard but still a solid album.

The final album I have here is from 1984 and features the same group with the only change being on saxophone. Monville exits and Luther Francois enters. Cha Pistache opens with a reasonably decent title track. But the wheels fall off pretty quickly with "Nycolson." Not much to write about on this one. The one redeemable tune would be "Mazouk Siderale" but that's being generous. Mostly forgettable stuff here.

As I'm looking, there are actually 2 more albums, one from 1994 and the other from 2013. I'll take a look to see if I can locate those final 2. Perhaps the group returned to a more interesting sound. EDIT: They didn't. If anyone loves Cha Pistache, let me know. I'll share the last 2 albums. 

Fal Frett - Fal Frett (1976)

Hey there. I have a few longer posts I've been working on, but wanted to squeeze a quick one in since it's been a while. 

We're going to travel to France for this next one, with the 1976 self-titled debut from the band Fal Frett. I've been unable to hunt down the rest of their catalog, but I'll keep looking. 

Here we have a quintet made up of Bib Monville on sax, Jacky Bernard on keys, Alex Bernard on bass, Nicol Bernard on percussion with Jacky Alpha on drums. All originals here with the first 5 tunes being credited to Jacky Bernard with the closing tune going to Monville.

A very funky, jazz-fusion start to this one with "Fal Frett" which features great playing from Bernard on keys. The soprano sax comes out for the quick "En Devirant" and also on another nice tune in "Baza-Bar." The absolutely excellent "Untel" follows and features more great play from Monville and Bernard. Two solid, yet slightly calmer, tunes close this one in "Picom" and "Biguila" with my favorite of the two being the former. 

Overall a great debut album from a group I'd love to hear more of. Please share if you have any other pieces of their catalog. And I'll keep digging.

Plenty more to come, so please stay tuned!