Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Yuji Ohno Trio - Mr. Happy-Gon


Year : 1971
Label : RCA
Serie : Modern Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz
Style : Hard Bop, Post Bop, Cool Jazz

"Mr. Happy-Gon" is the first solo album of iconic Japanese jazz pianist, Yuji Ohno featuring bassist Yoshio Ikeda & drummer Kazuyoshi Okayama, including jazz standards (the stunning "Alone Together") and originals (killer up-tempo "Mr Happy-Gon"). Yuji Ohno was mostly influenced by Burt Bacharach, Lalo Schifrin or Henri Mancini, he played as rookie musician at Keio University in the Jazz Club "Light Music Society" where he met pianists Masahiko Sato & Hiromasa Suzuki. He started as professional musician when he joined the jazz quintet of clarinetist Koji Fujika. In 1966, the legendary drummer Hideo Shiraki enrolled him in his quintet alongside Terumasa Hino & Kunimitsu Inaba, thereafter joined the Terumasa Hino Quartet in 1967, the Masahiko Togashi Quintet with Hiroshi Suzuki in 1969, and the Ryo Kawasaki Orchestra in 1970. During the seventies, Yuji Ohno became famous as film score composer ("Proof Of The Man"), soundtrack director of TV series ("Lupin The 3rd", "Captain Future", "Mad Police"), arranger/producer for various japanese songstress among Martha MiyakeMieko KajiEiko Shuri, Kimiko Kasai, Mieko Hirota, Hatsumi Shibata and the latin artists Sonia Rosa (Brazil), Graciela Susana (Argentina). Among his famous recordings are "Electro Keyboard Orchestra", "Sound Adventure Act.1" (amazing live performance feat. guitarist Kiyoshi Sugimoto, from 1975), "As Well Be Spring" with Ann Young or the duet album "Silent Dialogue" with keyboardist Masa Masuda in 1979.


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