orgyinrhythmredux

 Hiroshi Matumoto & Hideo Ichikawa Quartet for Victor Japan from 1969. Hideo Ichikawa(p), Hiroshi Matsumoto(vib), Kunimitsu Inaba(b), Motohiko Hino(ds). First time out in blogland for this superb all killer piano and vibes led set from Japan. Think Hutch-think MJQ-think again...this is just sublime.

 Jon Lee & Gerry Brown for Keytone from 1973. Gerry Brown (drums, percussion)John Lee (bass, Fender bass, percussion)Gary Bartz (alto & soprano saxophones, slidewhistle, percussion)Chris Hinze (flute, alto & bass flute, piccolo, bamboo flute)Henny Vonk (vocals, percussion)Howard King (percussion)Rob van de Broek (piano, electric piano)Hubert Eaves (piano, electric piano, percussion)Jasper Van 't Hof (piano)Wim Stolwijk (piano, voice) Forget all the dross that Lee & Brown knocked out during the 70's this was their first lp a slammin' slab of spiritual fusion which blows the shit out of their later output. Michael Cuscuna (no less) wrote these excellent sleeve notes: Infinite Jones is an outstanding recording from two outstanding musicians, John Lee and Gerry Brown. They have totally absorbed the various vocabularies of every musical idiom of the day and added their own fiercely creative energies to that knowledge. This album will prove that beyond doubt. John

A few years ago Konishi Yasuharu pulled together a reissue series of 9 rare 70's Japanese jazz-rock albums from Columbia Japan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia.I posted the first of the series Count Buffalo's Soul & Rock here and following this was contacted by Bongohito,a reader of this blog,who kindly sent me rips of two more albums from the series. I have ripped my copy of Keito Miho's Sachio:Sound Poesy to make a triple whammy of Japanese "Jazz Rock".Don't take the genre title too seriously and expect a lot more bossa/now sound than jazz rock on most of these tracks! Thanks to chipple.net whose reviews I have plundered for these posts-read the rest of his musings on the series at his blog .

This album features Maeda Norio (Hammond organ) and Inagaki Jirō (tenor sax), accompanied by trumpet, guitar (Sugimoto Kiyoshi also on Count Buffalo's album above), bass, drums and latin percussions. It seems like these two are still making music together to this day! The presence of the two lead instruments is felt throughout the album, which is mostly rock but with a touch of jazzy solos (far from being as radical as Count Buffalo's Soul & Rock [a previous OIR post]). Review from chipple.net Big thanks to bongohito who contributed this post.

The black jacket showing a hippie sitting in the dark didn't particularly attract me, but I was pleased with the music. The liner notes don't tell us much about the members other than leader Iiyoshi Kaoru (piano/organ), but he's accompanied by guitar, bass, drums, flute/horns and sometimes strings. Not much of a jazz feel here. Review from chipple.net Big thanks to bongohito who contributed this post.