Jul 9, 2012

Akira Ishikawa & His Count Buffalos - Get Up!


barabara sounds sez:  
Not the first time this has been seen in blogoville, but that's no reason to hold back. And not perhaps the ultimate Count Buffalos — my vote has to go to the magnificent Side 1 of Electrum (which you'll find hosted over at OIR). Or even Bakishinba (another of Bacoso's gems). But still most excellent and worthy of your time. Plus I seriously rate the album cover.

brief bio stuff: 
Akira Ishikawa was born in Yokosuka in 1934. He played with Akira Miyazawa's Modern All Stars; and later with Toshiyuki Miyama and his New Herd (in its early days), then left to form his own band The Gentures (try this on YouTube), which later gave birth to Count Buffalos. He was hugely influenced by African rhythms after visiting East Africa in the 1970. Hence the albums Uganda: Dawn of African Rock (more here) and then Bakishinba. 
Besides working as a session musician and also on TV (he takes the blame for this theme tune for an NHK kids show), he spent a lot of time working on projects to benefit African kids). In the 1990s he founded the music club Piga Piga in Ebisu, which hosted some of the best live African sounds in Tokyo. He later moved back to live in Kenya, which is where he died in 2002.

'Nuff said. Without further ado, time to Get it Up…


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

And yes, here is where to Get those comments Up…

http://www.mediafire.com/?my9sm65dhk01qhp

boogieman said...

Good one Taro! If it wasn't for the bloggers, I wouldn't know anything - or almost - about Japanese Jazz.
Cheers

Bender said...

Can't get enough of this guy. Thank you!

taro nombei said...

@ boogieman
Yes same for me — in other areas of jazz.
A good example is your blog ;-)
cheers!

taro nombei said...

@ Bender
You're welcome — I definitely agree!

E-mile said...

a most welcome surprise for me, thanks TN! grabbed to ones from bacoso then, thought that was about it [:-) I stand pleasantly corrected.
peace, E-mile
PS: no nukes indeed! hell no...

slovenlyeric said...

This is the 3rd recording I have heard from this group and it is great. Thank you for sharing this.

Calisan said...

3rd record for me too, and still very good but the first track is amazing!
Thanks for this great fusion!
Artwork is missing! Any chance to get it?

taro nombei said...

Thanks everyone for the comments. And yes, the opening/title track is a banger — some amazing drumming by "Uncle" Ishikawa!

@Calison
I'll post scans of the artwork as soon as I get a new scanner. But don't hold your breath… ;-)

Calisan said...

Thanks! No problem I'll wait
but in the meantime this is my little grain of sand:
http://vinilinflamable.blogspot.mx/
Regards

katonah said...

Top drop TN, right on!

taro nombei said...

@ Calisan
good work! you're now added to the list on the right…

@ katonah
cheers!

Anonymous said...

fresh link here:
http://www3.zippyshare.com/v/88807761/file.html

John Geib said...

Wow. Nener even heard of this man until today. Either that's one of the very best fusion albums ever made or I need to get out more.