Release date Feb 23rd 2018. PRE ORDERS AVAILABLE HERE : Triple vinyl / CD / Download. In the years following the World War Two, Japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. For a crucial period of little over a decade – from the late 1960s to the early 1980s – Japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. This amazing journey is explored on ‘J Jazz’. This compilation from BBE uncovers some of the most sought after and rare material from this period and pulls together key artists who shaped the post-war modern jazz scene in Japan. ‘J Jazz’ includes obscure and sought after rarities like the bass-driven power jazz of Koichi Matsukaze’s ‘Earth Mother’, the holy grail rarity of Aizawa Tohru Quartet’s ‘Dead Letter’ and the loping majesty of Takeo Moriyama’s ‘Nort...
"In all beginnings...a mystical,magic force, What course ,what destiny...determined in time" Time for just one more then .....Strata East in full effect on this fabulous spiritual modal opus from Clifford Jordan with a double quartet line up from 1974. Forst posted here 09/06. Here's a great write up about this classic double lp by Kevin Moist from the superb www.dreamgeo.com/Strata-East. One of the coolest things about Strata-East was how it provided a space for previous-generation players often considered “too mainstream” by the freejazzers and “too weird” by the mainstreamers to move and grow in personalized ways. In the late ’50s and early ’60s Clifford Jordan was generally heard as a “Coltranesque” player, in his earlier classic style; but most of this Hesse-monickered double LP finds Jordan sailing beyond straight-ahead into deeper skies much more open and spacious. The homage to the inspiration of using swinging hard bop as a base for spiritual exploration is expli...
Montevideo for SweDisc Japan from 1978. Hans Olsson - Keyboards/Salomon Helperin-Horns/Ulf Wakenius-Guitar/Jan Forslund-Saxes/Mikael Anderson-Drums,Percussion/Thomas Fantokurtos-Bass. A real obscurity and a first in the blogosphere.Keeing with the Swedish theme a nice bit of Scandinavian fusion with a latin twist via Japan. Try googling this and see what you get-nada! The bass player's been listening to Pastorius big time while the rest of the band seem to be in Weather Report territory with a helping of Spanish guitar plus some candomble/latin elements. Check out the massive bass driven percussion and chants of "El Travajo" and the samba sounds of "Light Hour". If anyone can shed any more light on this session drop a comment in the box.