Shibuya Jazz Classics - Sleep Walker collection

barabara sounds sez: 

Just in time for Christmas, another bundle of tip-top J-jazz, all culled from the excellent label that was Columbia-Takt. This compilation was put together by the guys of Sleep Walker. Eleven gems for the holiday season. Not the first time it's been seen in the blogosphere I believe, but too good not to post.

Enjoy! And best wishes to one and all for the holiday season!

tracks: 
Toshiko Akiyoshi - Phrygian Waterfall; Hino-Kikuchi Quintet - H.G. and pretty; Eddie Daniels - This is new; Norio Maeda - Alpha ray; Tadayuki Harada & His Group - Cinnamon and clove; George Otsuka Trio - Blues by five; Sadao Watanabe - Mas que nada; Hiroshi Suzuki-Masahiko Togashi Quintet - Castle cats; Sadao & Charlie - Palisades; Hiroshi Okazaki & His Stargazers - Flamenco sketch; Kazuo Yashiro Trio - The black nag

sleep walker - sleep walker + works

barabara sounds sez:

While I’m about it here, I might as well drop the other two Sleep Walker albums: the excellent self-titled debut; and the third, the “remixes/best-of/new bits and pieces” Works. Not the first time they've been out in the blogosphere. And there's not much more I need say about these bangers – except if you've not heard them before and you like a nice bit of premium club jazz, then your ears are in for a treat. Enjoy!

dusty sez (about Works):

…a collection of singles, remixes, and new tracks, all representing some of the best work from this ultra-hip club jazz combo! As with their full albums, the style here is jazz-based at the outset - played in a classic mode that has plenty of echoes of Impulse Records during the Coltrane generation – but forged into a tighter, leaner groove for the 21st Century – a mode that's sometimes rhythmic and aimed at the dancefloor, yet which never loses any sense of depth or creativity from a jazz perspective! Saxophonist Masato Nakamura contributes some incredibly great tenor and soprano work to the tunes – and Hajimi Yoshizawa's modal piano lines pulsate tremendously throughout. A few cuts are remixes, but still very much embody the Sleep Walker sound - with new instrumentation, as the group makes a live jazz take on the tracks they're supposedly remixing!

dusty sez (about Sleep Walker)

A monumental bit of club jazz – one of the best new records we've heard in years, with a sound that's right up there with the best of Impulse Records from the classic years! The album's a side project of Japanese producer/keyboardist Hajime Yoshizawa – and unlike his other records, which have a much stronger dance/soul approach, this set's almost purely straight jazz – done with majestically searching solos on both keyboards and sax, the latter of which is played by Masato Nakamura, who has a tone that almost recalls Pharoah Sanders! The whole thing's great – a brilliant piece of Love Supreme jazz, co-produced by Kyoto Jazz Massive, who give the record enough of a bounce to make it appeal to fans of recent work by them, Koop, or Jazzanova as well. An instant classic – and a mindblowingly deep record that we'll be playing for years!

sleep walker - the voyage

barabara sounds sez:

There was one more track that Pharoah Sanders laid down on that same 2003 visit to Tokyo when he recorded The Creator Has A Master Plan. He sat in as a guest with the hot club-jazz combo Sleep Walker. It came out as a single in 2004, and later became the title track of their next album, The Voyage (not released till 2006). Anyway, that's my inspiration for posting it here and now

–

but it's certainly not the only reason. The whole album grooves and soars just beautifully, with track 6, Kaze (= 'Wind') another stand-out. Don't believe me, ask Dusty...

dusty sez:

Brilliant brilliant work by Sleep Walker – a soaring, soulful album of spiritual jazz – one that we'd rank right up there with our favorites from the era of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders on Impulse Records! The vibe here is incredible – jazz played live on tenor, soprano sax, piano, bass, and drums – spinning out in modal lines that groove tremendously, but not with any tricks or gimmicks that get in the way of genuine jazz expression. Sleep Walker are easily one of the deepest and most talented combos of the current club jazz scene – and their music never resorts to fake samples or heavy-handed rhythms to move the tunes along – just glows in the genius of its own bright light, spreading forth in waves of soul and sound that are tremendous from the first note of the album to the last!

personnel:

中村 雅人

Nakamura

Masato

sax;

吉澤 はじめ Yoshizawa Hajime piano; 杉本 智和 Sugimoto Tomokazu bass; 藤井 伸昭 Fujii Nobuaki d

rums.

tracks

Ai-No-Tabi; Into The Sun; The Southern Cross; Afloat; Lost in Blue; Kaze; Reminiscence; The Voyage

trivia:

• As UK friends may know, Sleepwalker played alongside Pharoah at the Jazz Cafe in London in late 2003. He came back to Japan again in 2006 and played with them at the outdoor Metamorphose festival.

• There's an interesting fragment of a beyondjazz interview with Okino Shinya (Kyoto Jazz Massive; produced Sleepwalker) on angelfire's Pharoah discography:

When we knew Pharoah was coming to Japan, we offered this recording to his management. But we got the answer (ok) 4 days before the day for recording. Sleep Walker made a song for this recording during this 4 days. Every member stayed at Hajime's house. When recording, Pharoah asked us the image of this song. Hajime answered that this image is the feeling from father and children met again after long time no seeing. So we decided to call this song "Chichi to ko" (it means "Father and children" in English). When Masa played tenor sax, Pharoah shouted "Masa"! It was very impressing. And when Pharoah started his solo, I couldn't stop crying. It was so beautiful! Our dreams came true..."

• And check out this clip (posted by tokyojazznotes) of Pharoah with Sleepwalker from 2006 (also ft. Bembe Segue and Yukimi Nagano). It's hard to actually hear the sax at all, what with all the noise from the floor every time he steps up to play, but it's a great nugget... [btw the track is You've Got To Have Freedom]

The Voyage was first posted in the blogosphere by Bacoso on the ever-essential Orgy in Rhythm – and it's still up in the archives there. But just in case anyone's slept [or should that be sleepwalked?] on it, here it is again (with full scans of that modern classic album art...)