Oct 22, 2012

Samurai Era — 15 lost grooves from the land of the rising sun



barabara sounds sez:
Another compilation, but this time highlighting the wealth of homegrown jazz talent that has emerged at this end of the planet. Despite the subtitle, few of the 15 tracks here are actually "lost" — and weren't even in 1999 when this album came out. In fact a number of them were/became club standards, not least Teruo Nakamura's TBM classic Umma Be Me (which is of course by Hubert Eaves, was recorded in NYC and features all US jazzmen apart from Nakamura himself, which hardly makes it "from the land of the rising sun").

And there lies both the weakness and strength of this collection: it's aimed at those discovering j-jazz through the clubs. Nothing wrong there at all. I just fast-forward/program out the overly-slick numbers by Zerosen and Imada — yes, and Hino-san too (sad to say) — to get to the core nuggets. From the chilled opening track by Isao Suzuki to Kawaguchi with Art Blakey to the percussive gems by Ponta Murakami and Shiraki's Stereo Drums, there's plenty to groove on here. 

Best of the lot? Most times round, my vote goes to Poo-Sun Kikuchi's La Moca Está Domingo, from Wishes/Kochi, his brilliant album on East Wind (Hino is in stellar form here, happily). But don't sleep on the curiosities: Masayoshi Takanaka's Star Wars Samba and Pecker's strangely named Dr. Dr. Humanity – yes that's for real: try googling it ;-)... Now there's one that really was lost from sight!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

groove on this…

http://www.mediafire.com/?91is5q2jw336r22

the jazzstronaut said...

Nice one TN, you're pretty accurate on the "lost" bit as my copy of the 'Kochi' LP is on the US Inner City label.

Many thanks.

g.raf said...

Many thanks for this TN.
There are always one or two good discoveries to be made on these comps.

bongohito said...

back with a VENGENCE, tn!

*good* on ye for such a great comp that can serve as a springboard to so many things. it's comps like this that were gateways for me to what i feel are the cream of the japanese jazz crop.

いいね!

Juby said...

Thank you so much for sharing this! You are pretty much one of the only places that I can learn about this music. Cheers!

Chistochel said...

Great stuff! Thanks!

jazzobsessive said...

Really good stuff on this-I'm enjoying getting into it.
Thanks.

taro nombei said...

@ the jazzstronaut, g.raf, bongohito, Juby, Chistochel, jazzobsessive

cheers!

Anonymous said...

more explorations and discoveries! thank you so much!

Mimi Soul said...

Thanks !

Peace

Andy said...

Cheers,Merry Xmas

taro nombei said...

@ Mimi Soul, @ Andy, @ anon

Thanks!
Hope you've been enjoying the holiday season!

Anonymous said...

I don´t know if you will read this, but it´s time to say "you really do a great job here". Blogs like this one are the reason why internet is a good egg. Actually I am working in an African country in development cooperation and it´s always good to listen to your positive, inspirational and mind-changing music. Take care of you.

taro nombei said...

@ anonymous

Thank you very much for that great comment.
In fact, it's the kind of comment that inspires me to keep on with this blog.

Take care, and all the best from over here!

TN