Year : 2015/1969
Label : Deep Jazz Reality/Victor
Serie : Modern Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz, Post Bop, Contemporary Jazz, Modal, Spiritual
Recorded in 1969, best known under the 1977 US reissue by Catalyst Records, "Matrix" is the first album as a leader of Masabumi Kikuchi featuring Tetsuo Fushimi & Hideyuki Kikuchi (if one ignores the album duet with Terumasa Hino in 1968). "Matrix" is obviously a masterpiece, released after significant experience years as sideman, close to various Jazz masters, Masabumi conceived it, reciprocally, on the saxophone overtones occurred by Hideyuki Kikuchi alongside Akio Nishimura on tenor. Titles include great variations of jazz standards rearranged with brio by Kikuchi, such as the modal "On A Green Dolphin Street" (based on the 1958 Miles Davis version) or the bossa nova classic "Black Orpheus" composed by Luiz Bonfa, the title track composed by Chick Corea, the Jazz Rock to baroque accents "If I Said The Sky Was Falling" (composed for the TV drama "Matte Masu Wa" by Sadao Watanabe). The album also contains two own Kikuchi's compositions, the ballad "Little Aby" (reminiscent of John Coltrane) and "In Fourth Way".
MUSICIANS : Masabumi Kikuchi - piano - Tetsuo Fushimi - trumpet - Hideyuki Kikuchi - alto saxophone - Akio Nishimura - tenor saxophone - Hironori Takiya - bass - Takahiro Suzuki - drums
