Sadao Watanabe & His Group - Music Break

 

Year : 1969
Label : Nippon Columbia
Serie : Takt Jazz Series
Genre : Latin Jazz
Style : Bossa Nova

Recording of the live performance at Kosei-Nenkin Kaikan in Tokyo, Jul.4, 1967, spread over two discs of the "Takt Jazz Series", the first being the "Bossa Nova Concert". "Music Break" is making part of the japanese sixties phenomenon, the big Bossa Nova Boom, which was introduced by Sadao Watanabe and also contributed to do Brazilian Music, a popular music genre in Japan. Sadao (as, fl) plays with his regular rhythm section from 1966 to 1968, featuring Jazz legends pianist Masabumi Kikuchi & drummer Masahiko Togashi, guitarist Sadanori Nakamure, bassist Masanaga Harada, percussionist Hideo Miyata (on cabasa). Titles include the Bossa Nova classics like "Mas Que Nada", "Meditation", "Samba De Orfeu" and the jazz standard "It Might As Well Be Spring" played in samba mode.

Masabumi Kikuchi Sextet - Matrix

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

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Shunzo Ohno - Something's Coming

Year : 1975
Label : EW
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Funk, Fusion

Miles Davis' most inspired album by trumpeter Shunzo Ohno, his first recording outside Japan featuring Masabumi Kikuchi & the giant jazz drummer Roy Haynes. Indeed, "Something's Coming" is one of the finest tribute to the Miles Davis's fusion era (as evidenced the title-track), occured between 1968-1974 (also called Electric Miles period) including iconic albums "Miles In The Sky" & "Get Up With It". So it is not surprising to see Ohno evolved alongside both Cedric Lawson & Reggie Lucas, both were sidemen for Miles during this emblematic period. Titles include only compositions by Shunzo Ohno, recorded at Basement recording studio, New York.

MUSICIANS : Shunzo Ohno - trumpet -  Masabumi Kikuchi - organ - Cedric Lawson - keyboards - Don Pate - bass - Reggie Lucas - guitar - Roy Haynes - drums

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Helen Merrill - Bossa Nova In Tokyo

Year : 1967
Label : Victor
Genre : Latin Jazz
Style : Bossa Nova

The third album recorded in Japan by Helen Merrill with the Sadao Watanabe Quintet featuring Masabumi Kikuchi (p), Isao Suzuki (b), Masahiko Togashi (ds),  Sadanori Nakamure (g) & Hideo Miyata (per), conducted and arranged Norio Maeda. Helen Merrill revisits the greatest hits of Bossa Nova among others, original compositions from the forerunner Antonio Carlos Jobim ("So Danço Samba", "How Insensitive", "Agua Di Beber"), just as some Japanese popular Pop songs ("Yume Wa Yoru Hiraku", "Shinjite Itai") & Jazz standards ("Fly Me To The Moon", "The Shadow Of Your Smile"). 

Masabumi Kikuchi - Poo-Sun

Year : 1970
Label : Philips
Genre : Jazz
Style : Fusion, Contemporary Jazz

One of the finest Japanese Jazz Fusion album ever recorded by jazz pianist. Influenced by Mc Coy Tyner, Masabumi Kikuchi started as professional in the late 50's, was sideman for Sadao Watanabe during the sixties, and played alongside Terumasa Hino, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the jazz giants Elvin Jones, Gil Evans, Sonny Rollins or Miles Davis on stage. As the Terumasa Hino's Hi-Nology, "Poo-Sun" adopts the "Electric Miles" approach, the beginnings of electrification in jazz from "Miles In The Sky" (1968). Kikuchi formed a great sextet-combo based Kohsuke Mine, Motohiko Hino & Yoshio Ikeda. Titles include the representative Kikuchi style "Dancing Mist", the tribute to Elvin Jones (E.J.), the iconci jazz ballad "Yellow Carcass In The Blue" and the jazz rock "Puzzle Ring" followed by the short piano piece, "My Companion". All tracks composed and arranged by Masabumi Kikuchi excepted "Puzzle Ring" by Masahiro Kikuchi.

MUSICIANS : Masabumi Kikuchi - piano, electric piano - Hideo Ichikawa - organ, electric piano - Kohsuke Mine - soprano, alto saxophone - Yoshio Ikeda - bass - Motohiko Hino & Hiroshi Murakami - drums  Keiji Kishida - percussion

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Terumasa Hino, Masabumi Kikuchi - Hino=Kikuchi Quintet

Year : 1969
Label : Nippon Columbia
Serie : Takt Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz
Style : Modal, Hard Bop

Essential japanese jazz masterpiece from Takt Jazz Series by the Masabumi Kikuchi Quintet featuring trumpeter Terumasa Hino in duet album including Takeru Muraoka on tenor saxophone, Kunimitsu Inaba on bass & Hino's brother, Motohiko on drums. "Hino=Kikuchi Quintet" introducing the future Hino's legendary quintet from 1969 to 1970, later joined by keyboardist Hiromasa Suzuki on "Hi-Nology", "Hakuchu No Shugeki Original Soundtrack"& "Into The Heaven". All tracks composed & arranged by Masabumi Kikuchi. Titles include "H.G. And Pretty" selected for the "Shibuya Jazz Classics - Sleep Walker Collection" compilation released in 2003. 

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Sadao Watanabe Sextet - Bossa Nova '67

Year : 1967
Label : Victor
Genre : Latin Jazz
Style : Bossa Nova

"Bossa Nova '67" is the second bossa nova album recorded by the Sadao Watanabe Sextet featuring Sadao Watanabe (as, fl), Masabumi Kikuchi (p), Isao Suzuki (b), Masahiko Togashi (ds), Sadanori Nakamure (g) & Hideo Miyata (cabasa), supported by a strings ensemble. Sadao Watanabe is the most famous japanese jazz musician and was the main actor of the Bossa Nova boom in Japan from 1966 with the "Jazz & Bossa" album. The album consists of a collection bringing together all the big hits which made the fame of Bossa Nova from Antonio Carlos Jobim (The Girl From Ipanema, Meditation) to Luiz Bonfa (Black Orpheus) by Jorge Ben (Mas Que Nada), including also Jazz standards (Fly Me To the Moon, The Shadow Of Your Smile) and "A Man And A Woman" extracted from the musical score of the eponymus film composed by Francis Lai.