Arakawa Band

Apparently I listened to 1,018 different artists in 2023. Nearly all jazz in one shape or form. Some were artists I was already familiar with but I'd bet the majority were new to me. A favorite of mine I stumbled upon is what I'll cover today. Arakawa Band, lead by flautist and saxophonist Tatsuhiko Arakawa, absolutely blew me away when I listened to their limited catalog. 

Turns out, the group released two albums under the name The Great American Music Band before changing their name. Both albums were released in 1979 and I'm not 100% certain which album was released first. Based on sound alone, my guess is Over The Sky was the first release. It's a little more straight ahead and less funky than the remaining material which leads me to believe it was the group's debut. Quite the ensemble here: 

Saxophone, flute, clarinet: Tatsuhiko Arakawa
Saxophone, flute: Yasumasa Kikuchi
Trombone: Osamu Shiomura
Trumpet, Flugelhorn: Hitoshi Okano, Kenji Nakazawa, Toshio Araki
Keyboards: Ryozo Henmi, Tohru Miyahara, Kenji Sato
Electric guitar: Teiji Mihata
Electric bass: Koh Tsubota
Percussion: Eiji Narushima
Drums: Tsugio Ano

I can't find detailed notes on the album but we have 5 tracks here with personal favorites being "Sound Inn" and "A Lasamba". Tight instrumentation throughout. Arakawa's compositions and arrangements are bar none. I revisit this album the least and it's still a rock solid release. "A Lasamba" picks up the tempo and leads right into Scorpio quite well. 

Scor'pio comes in with a runtime of about 26 minutes and honestly I love every second of it. The opening tune (from Michael Brecker) "Night Flight" is the longest of the bunch at 7 minutes and sets the tone for the rest of the record. I could change my personal favorite after each listen but the opening track, the title track and the closing track, "Dream of Paradise" are all excellent. Again, tight instrumentation and stellar arrangements from Arakawa. Not a ton of drawn out improvisation, but rather quick hitting, uptempo tracks. This music is just flat out fun, in my opinion. Another sizeable ensemble: 

Saxophone, flute: Tatsuhiko Arakawa, Shoji Maeda
Trombone: Osamu Shiomura
Trumpet: Hitoshi Okano, Toshio Araki
Keyboards: Akihiro Miyaura, Kenji Sato, Yoshikazu Miyauchi
Electric guitar: Chuji Nagaoka, Teiji Mihata
Electric bass: Koh Tsubota
Percussion: Noboru Kimura
Drums: Shigeru Inoue

Next up, we have 1980's album with John Kaizan Neptune, Bamboo. Neptune is a renowned player of the shakuhachi, which is a Japanese bamboo flute. An American based in Japan, he has quite an extensive catalog, although this album is my only exposure to his music thus far. JKN fits in quite nicely with the group, although technically I believe this is his album featuring Arakawa Band. I also cannot find specific details regarding personnel. 

Five tracks here and they're all fantastic, in my opinion. I personally enjoy the final three the most, starting with the bouncy "Walk Downtown." The next two tunes, "Genji" and "Fun Key" both bring out the best of the ensemble. Can't stress enough how well Arakawa arranges and leads the group. Listen for yourself and enjoy. 

While the goal for the page has been to share music that isn't on streaming services, I enjoy this group too much to not include their other two albums here. Both are readily available digitally but for the sake of completeness, they'll be here too. 

First up is 1980's Lena, which was my first experience with the group. This was recommended to me by the algorithm and I decided to give it a chance based on the album artwork. Personnel appears to be the same as Scor'pio with the addition of another drummer, Kazuaki Misago and Yoshinori Nohmi on percussion. Vibraphonist Tatsuji Deguchi is also on board for the opening title track. 

More of the same great stuff here. 4 of the 6 tracks are originals with the exceptions being the excellent "Music For A Flowered Pig" from Roland Vasquez and the closing track, "Night Flight" which is the same Brecker tune from Scor'pio. All 6 songs are fantastic, in my opinion. Personal favorites is "Brass Magic" due to the synthesizer play but again this album is great stuff start to finish. 

The final release in the catalog is 1981's Hard Boiled featuring trumpeter Hitoshi Okano. With Okano being a mainstay in the group, I'm not sure why the featuring tag was added to the title. Perhaps he had a larger hand in the compositions, I'm not entirely sure. The album starts off with a fantastic tune "Shadow" and also features a couple excellent, slower tracks in "Ebb and Flow" and "In The Mellow." Personal favorite is the funky "Kick Down". Again, it appears that the personnel is essentially the same, although it looks like they may have used a few different percussionists. Another fantastic album to close out the catalog. 

The only complaint I have is I wish there were more albums to enjoy. Arakawa had a hand in arranging for a few other artists but I've only listened to a little bit so far. A lot of the band members seemed to have little other experience after this band. A shame really but at least we're lucky enough for the 5 albums we have here. 

BONUS TIME: I nearly forgot. While they're credited with only 2 tracks, I believe, Arakawa Band did have some sort of presence on a soundtrack for the film, "The Beast Must Die." Officially credited to Akihiko Takashima, the group is listed for the "Main Theme" and the second to last song, "Tokyo Machine." The soundtrack is worth a listen either way, and I've included it here, as well.

I hope anyone that comes across this enjoys this band as much as I have. Have a great weekend!

Sadao Watanabe - Pamoja

I haven't dove too deeply into Sadao Watanabe's catalog - but I did come across this Pamoja album by way of the personnel. It's a fantastic recording so I wanted to share despite being the only album from Sadao that I have ready to go. 

Joining Sadao (alto and flute,) we have a lineup of absolute giants. Starting with some familiar faces from Native Son - drummer Hiroshi Murakami, pianist Takehiro Honda, and trombonist Hiroshi Fukumura. We also have Yoshiaki Masuo on guitar, icon Isao Suzuki on bass with Masahiko Togashi on percussion. I have a ton to share from Isao but that'll have to wait for another day. 

Recorded live in 1975, this features 3 originals from Sadao, along with the standard from Cole Porter, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye." Personal favorites for me are the opening track "Vichakani" and the slightly more energetic title track. This is a stellar performance from start to finish. If you're here - I hope you dig it. 

Shunzoh Ohno

Next up, we'll take a quick look at trumpeter Shunzoh Ohno. While checking for other appearances from keyboardist Mikio Masuda, I came across Ohno's album from 1973, Falter Out. After enjoying it quite a bit, next I found 1979's Quarter Moon. Both are fantastic albums and readily available digitally. 

At that point, and after a little bit of effort, I came across copies of the 2 albums that Ohno released in the time between. First, we have 1975's Something's Coming. Recorded in NYC, Ohno is joined by a supporting cast of mostly Americans. Reggie Lucas is on guitar, Cedric Lawson is on keys, Don Pate on bass, and the legendary Roy Haynes is on drums. Masabumi Kikuchi is also here on the organ. All Ohno originals here with the opening title track being my favorite. Lawson on the clavinet stands out - aside from Ohno on trumpet, of course. One thing to note here, and I have no way of knowing for sure, but I believe track 2 cuts short on this copy. It ends abruptly - but I'm not 100% if that's by design or not.

Next up we have 1976's Bubbles. Haynes and Lucas return on drums and guitar, respectively. The personnel listed doesn't include a bassist, which is a little odd to me. Sam Johnson and Ronald Brockett Jr are both on keys. And Neil Clarke is providing some welcomed percussion. A favorite of mine. Great fusion here through and through. 

The opening title track features Ohno playing his melodica which I find to be quite enjoyable. And they reprise the title track to close the album. All Ohno originals here with the exception being the Haynes tune "Bullfight" which sounds exactly as you'd expect. Another favorite of mine is the melodic "Song For My Kid" but honestly this is a great album top to bottom. 

If you dig what you hear here, I definitely recommend Falter Out and Quarter Moon. Even Antares is worth an honorable mention. Enjoy!

Kohsuke Mine

Hello there. Today we'll take a look at some albums from saxophonist and Native Son founding member, Kohsuke Mine. I'm not sure what originally lead me to his work but these albums eventually lead me to Native Son. We're only covering a snippet of albums that I haven't been able to find on streaming services. 

First up, we have 1970's release, Mine. A relatively straightforward album with a nice lineup of Hideo Ichikawa on piano, fellow Native Son founding member Hiroshi Murakami on drums, Takashi Mizuhashi on bass, and also joining is trombonist, Takashi Imai. Significance here is that this is the first release on legendary record label Three Blind Mice. We have 3 originals here from Mine and Ichikawa, along with a rendition of Isotope from fellow saxophonist, the much beloved Joe Henderson. 

Released in the same year, the conveniently titled 2nd album again features Murakami on drums and Imai on trombone. Yoshio Suzuki handles bass duties with the quite enjoyable guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo rounding out the quintet. All originals here with a personal favorite being the Suzuki tune "Brother In Law."

Next up for us is Out Of Chaos; released in 1974 on the East Wind label. Here Mine is joined by Masabumi Kikuchi on piano, Tsutomu Okada on bass, with Motohiko Hino on drums. All accomplished players in their own right. Only 3 tracks here and all originals from within the group. My favorite is the nice Kikuchi ballad, "Little Abi." Solid album all around, however.

Next for us is a live recording from 1975. Released in 1976, Solid features Mikio Masuda on keyboards, Hideaki Mochizuki on bass and Arihide Kurata on drums. Here the group starts with a somewhat spacey Masuda tune, "You Make Me So Sad," followed by a very nice version of Mine's "Expectation," a personal favorite. This album is also the first time I recall hearing Mine playing his electric soprano saxophone. The group closes, and Mine returns to his tenor with a rendition of "Search For Peace," from legendary pianist, McCoy Tyner. Fantastic stuff here, through and through.

Next up is my favorite album from the group and nothing short of a classic in 1976's Sunshower. Again featuring Masuda, Mochizuki and Kurata, we also have Hiroshi Yasukawa on guitar with Hideo Miyata on percussion. Four original tunes here from Masuda and Mine, and a shift to fusion that has a psychedelic rock vibe at times, in part due to Yasukawa's addition on guitar. This one stays in my steady rotation. I could gush about each track but I'll let the music do the talking. Excellent album. 

Enjoy!

Native Son Part 3

Happy New Year. 

Back with our final installment of Native Son's catalog. Excited to finish this up because I have some other releases I'd like to share.  

First up, we go back a couple of years to cover the group's 2 live albums. After their first 2 studio albums, the group released 1980's Coast To Coast - Live In USA. Lineup here is the same as the self-titled 2nd studio album. Honda, Mine, Murakami, Ohde, Kinoshita and Fukumura. Amazing stuff here all-around. Kinoshita's bass playing stood out to me - especially after spending time with their latter, more mundane albums. It was nice to return to the sound that originally jumped out to me.

After the group's superb 3rd studio album, Shining, they released their second live album in 1983's Carnival - Live at Montreux. Lineup here features bassist Gregg Lee from the Resort and Gumbo albums, as well as drummer Louis DeAndrade, who I'm unfamiliar with. Louis doesn't appear on any other albums so perhaps his inclusion was simply for the tour, etc. Only 4 tracks here that are all on point - including the closing "Isn't She Lovely" from the legend, Stevie Wonder. 

The final release in the catalog comes with a slight name change to the group. Despite no changes in the lineup, 1987's Aguncha was released as Takehiro Honda and Native Son. A little peppy and mostly pedestrian music here. The only track of potential merit is "P.J." with some slight recognition for the following track, "Flyer's Road." Unlikely to revisit this one. 

That pretty much sums up everything for Native Son. Next up, we'll take a look at some of Kohsuke Mine's solo work.