Sadao Watanabe - Live At The Junk

Year : 1970
Label : CBS
Genre : Jazz
Style : Bossa Nova, Jazz Rock

Amazing recording live performed in concert by the Sadao Watanabe Quartet at the Jazz Club "Junk", Ginza, Tokyo, 26 & 27th december, 1969. Sadao plays with his regular rhythm section from 1968 to 1970 featuring guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo, bassist Yoshio Suzuki & his brother, the drummer Fumio Watanabe. "Live At The Junk" is the synthesis of Sadao's career, started as a leader in 1961, including various recordings ranging from Bossa Nova to Jazz Rock by Modal. Titles include jazz standards from Charlie Parker (Cheryl) & Jimmy Van Heusen (Here's That Rainy Day), Bossa Nova compositions from Antonio Carlos Jobim (No More Blues, Granny's Samba~Ending Felicidade), two famous cover pop songs (Georgia On My Mind, This Guy's In Love With You) and the original Sadao's Jazz Rock composition, "If I Said The Sky Was Fallin" taken from the japanese TV drama "Matte Masu Wa" broadcasted on TBS from 1969.

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Sadao Watanabe - Sadao Plays Bacharach & Beatles

Year : 1969
Label : Nippon Columbia
Serie : Takt Jazz Series
Genre : Jazz
Style : Pop, Soul Jazz, Jazz Rock,

As title suggests, "Sadao Plays Bacharach & Beatles" is a compilation album of their best known songs. It brings together three studio recordings and six live recordings from the Sadao Watanabe's 1968 performance at Sankei-Hall, Tokyo, featuring Terumasa Hino, Kazuo Yashiro, Yoshiaki Masuo, Hiroshi Suzuki & Yoshio Ikeda. Titles include some famous Burt Bacharach's pop songs (Look Of Love, Walk On By) and from The Beatles, including three tracks from their "Magical Mystery Tour" album, all played in the Soul Jazz/Rock styles. All tracks of the side B are studio recordings whose a over 14 min variation of George Harrison's "Blue Jay Way" including free rock expressions.

MUSICIANS : Sadao Watanabe - alto saxophone, sopranino - Yoshiaki Masuo - guitar- Yoshio Ikeda - bass - Isao Eto - electric bass - Fumio Watanabe - drums - Yuji Imamura - percussion- Kazuo Yashiro - organ, electric piano, hapsicord -  Terumasa Hino & Tetsuo Fushimi - trumpet - Hiroshi Suzuki - trombone - Yasushi Ichihara - baritone trombone

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Takehiro Honda - T. Honda Meets Rhythm Section Featuring S. Watanabe

Year : 1970
Label : Trio Records
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz, Modal

Debut album of jazz pianist Takehiro Honda, recorded in Yamaha Hall in 1969, the first of eight albums serie recorded for Trio Electronics. The Takehiro Honda's rhythm section is based on the Sadao Watanabe Quartet featuring saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo, bassist Yoshio Suzuki and Sadao's brother, the drummer Fumio Watanabe. This first experience with the Sadao Watanabe Quartet, will bring Honda to enroll Yoshio Suzuki & Fumio Watanabe for his new jazz trio and later join the Sadao formation from 1973 to 1978. Titles include popular Jazz standards (By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Stella By Starlight), a variation on "Hey Jude" from The Beatles and his own compositions (Minton Blues, Ain't Tell You A Good Way But, Quiet Sea). All tracks arranged by Takehiro Honda.

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Yoshiaki Masuo - 24

Year : 1970

Label : CBS
Genre : Jazz
Style : Jazz Rock, Psychedelic Rock

The masterpiece of Yoshiaki Masuo is an essential album of japanese progressive jazz featuring Sadao Watanabe, Yoshio Suzuki, Hideo Ichikawa & Motohiko Hino. "24" is the exact age of Masuo in 1970, who explores the music of the Woodstock generation, following the Jimmy Hendrix steps. The album is an incursion in the Rock 'N' Roll genre from Blues Rock (Dirty Mashy Toe) to Folk Rock (Shirley), including original songs by Masuo, the jazz rock anthem "Round Trip : Coming" composed with Sadao, "Uptight" to the free expressions, the jazz ballad "Soft Sadness" and "Corvallis" with Sadao on flute. All tracks arranged by Yoshiaki Masuo.

MUSICIANS : Yoshiaki Masuo - guitar - Hideo Ichikawa - keyboards - Yoshio Suzuki - bass - Motohiko Hino - drums - Hiro Tsunoda - drums, percussions - Sadao Watanabe - flute, percussions - Tetsuo Fushimi - trumpet - Takashi Imai - trombone - Shigemichi Domoto - trombone

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Nobuo Hara And His Sharps & Flats '68 - Forest Flower

Year : 1968
Label : Nippon Columbia
Genre : Jazz
Style : Big Band, Contempory Jazz

"Forest Flower" is an album recorded by the best known japanese Big Band outside Japan featuring guitarist Yoshiaki Masuo & trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki. Nobuo Hara was a band leader and saxophonist, one of the man who contributed to the Jazz expansion in Japan. He formed his "Sharps & Flats" in 1951, in which started some future japanese jazz greats such as Koji Suzuki, Norio Maeda or Hiroshi Takeuchi. The big band supported worlwide artists as well as on stage than on studio including Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hozan Yamamoto, Sadao Watanabe, Elvin Jones, Sarah Vaughan, Oliver Nelson, Yves Montand. Titles include Jazz standards from Herbie Hancock (Watermelon Man), Ramsey Lewis (The "In" Crowd), Lee Morgan (The Sidewinder), Joe Zawinul (Walk Tall, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy) and covers from Bobby Hebb (Sunny) and The Beatles (A Day In The Life). All tracks arranged by Norio Maeda.

MUSICIANS : Nobuo Hara - tenor saxophone - Koji Suzuki, Kazunori Taniguchi & Hajime Maekawa - alto saxophone - Nobuyuki Morikawa - baritone saxophone - Shuzo Morikawa, Teruyuki Fukushima, Kunitoshi Shinohara & Hiroshi Saba - trumpet - Tadao Taniyama, Hiroshi Suzuki & Haruo Ochi - trombone - Toshihiko Ogawa - piano - Yoshiaki Masuo - guitar - Hiroshi Takeuchi - bass - Yoshio Nakamura - drums

Yoshiaki Masuo And His Group - Winds Of Barcelona

Year : 1969

Label : CBS
Genre : Jazz
Style : Soul Jazz

Debut album in the Montgomery's style from the japanese boss of guitar featuring Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Kazuo Yashiro, Larry Sunaga,  Yoshio Suzuki & Fumio Watanabe from the Takehiro Honda Trio. Influenced by Wes Montgomery and the Grant Green's works, Yoshiaki Masuo has been spotted by saxophonist Sadao Watanabe who launched his professional career in joining up his quartet from 1967. In the late sixties, he was enrolled in the Sharps & Flats by band leader Nobuo Hara and played for pianist Takehiro Honda on his debut album within Sadao Watanabe Quartet. In 1971, he moved to New York where he played for his fellow countryman bassist Teruo Nakamura, prestigious musicians like Lenny White, Michael Brecker, Chick Korea or Elvin Jones, and later in 1973 within the Sonny Rollins group. Titles include pop cover songs by Laura Nyro (Stoned Soul Picnic), Simon & Garfunkel (Scarborough Fair), Bacharach & David  (I Say A Little Prayer, What The World Needs Now Is Love), tribute to Wes Montgomery (One For Wes) and the Sadao's Bossa tune "Gary's Tune".

MUSICIANS : Yoshiaki Masuo & Kiyoshi Sugimoto - guitar - Hideo Miyata - flute - Yoshio Suzuki - bass - Fumio Watanabe - drums - Larry Sunaga - percussions - Kazuo Yashiro - organ - Nobuhiro Suzuki - vibraphone, marimba

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Sonia Rosa - Sensitive Sound Of Sonia Rosa ~ Bossa Nova Greatest Hits

 

Year : 1970

Label : Express
Genre : Latin Jazz
Style : Bossa Nova

The first recording of brazilian songstress and guitarist Sonia Rosa in Japan, featuring renowned japanese jazz musicians within the Sadao Watanabe Quartet featuring Sadao Watanabe (ts), Yoshiaki Masuo (g), Yoshio Suzuki (b) & Hiro Tsunoda (ds). "Sensitive Sound Of Sonia Rosa" is a Bossa Nova album including the songs which made its fame from Antonio Carlos Jobim (The Girl From Ipanema, Desafinado, Meditation...), jazz standards (Fly Me To The Moon, The Shadow Of Your Smile), cover songs of Bacharach (The look Of Love, I'll Never Fall In Love Again), variation on "Corcovado" with english lyrics called "Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars" and "La Chanson D'Orphée" taken from Marcel Camus' film "Orfeu Negro".