R.I.P. MASABUMI KIKUCHI 1939 - 2015























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RELEASE DATE FEBRUARY 23rd on BBE RECORDS J-Jazz - Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984

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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...
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CLIFFORD JORDAN QUARTET- GLASS BEAD GAMES

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"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...
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NEIL ARDLEY - HARMONY OF THE SPHERES

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Neil Ardley for Decca from 1979. What better way to celebrate a birthday than with this great piece of British jazz by Neil Ardley? Neil Ardley:Synthesizers;John Martyn:Guitars;Billy Kristian:bass;Geoff Castle:Piano,Minimoog;Richard Burgess:Drums;Trevor Tomkins:Percussion;Barbara Thompson:Flute,Soprano Sax;Tony Coe:Clarinet,Soprano Sax;Ian Carr:Trumpet,Flugelhorn;Pepi Lemer,Norma Winstone:Voices (What a line up !!!) Highly Recommended. I lifted this write up from the Neil Ardley site: Neil Ardley based this 1978 album on the ancient idea of the Harmony of the Spheres, the idea that each planet produces a musical note related to its orbit. It was reasoned that, as everything in the heavens is perfect, the notes must sound together to produce a perfect harmony. Neil Ardley synthesized the actual harmony of the spheres, deriving the frequencies of the notes from the orbital periods of the planets. It can be heard in the all-synthesizer track Soft Stillness and the Night, and it is appro...
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