YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO with Brass 12 "GUGAN" (EMI, 1971)

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO with Brass 12 "GUGAN"
(Introducing Takeo Moriyama)


Seiichi Nakamura, tenor & soprano saxophone
Yosuke Yamashita, piano
Takeo Moriyama, drums
Hisahide Katoh, tenor saxophone
Mabumi Yamaguchi, alto saxophone
Kunio Fukisaki, Susumi Kazuhara, Toru Ogoshi, Kenji Yoshida, trumpet
Masao Suzuki, baritone horn
Naoki Takahashi, Hisashi Nishimura, Hisashi Imai, trombone
Kyosuke Aikawa, tuba

1. Hachi (T.Moriyama) 11:10
2. Ballad for Y.Y. (T.Moriyama) 09:04
3. Take One (T.Moriyama) 10:24
4. Gugan (Y.Yamashita) 07:18

Recorded on September 25, 1971 at Toshiba EMI Studio.

EMI ETJ-9091 (first release)
EXPRESS FAR EAST Jazz Series ETJ-60005 (this version)

(lp rip)

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TAKEO MORIYAMA / MAL WALDRON "BIT" (TOKUMA, 1995)

This post is made possible - again - through some generous donations by J.
Thank you!!




TAKEO MORIYAMA / MAL WALDRON "BIT"


Takeo Moriyama, drums
Mal Waldron, piano

1. LAUD Suite (Moriyama/Waldron) 48:14
2. Left Alone (Waldron) 07:13


Recorded August 20, 1995 at Studio F, Tokyo.

TOKUMA Japan Communication/3361*Black TKCB-71335

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO "CONCERT IN NEW JAZZ" (UNION, 1969)

This was the third LP of the Yamashita Trio, still with the original sax player Seiichi Nakamura. It was reissued as CD in 1991 with one piece more. Also some pieces were longer than on the LP.
But both are out of print.

Yosuke Yamashita is in Japan much more famous for his movie acting and his books which are bestsellers - as I was told by a japanese friend.
Sometimes he is marked as the japanese Cecil Taylor - but I think it is obvious that he has a voice all his own. However - C.T. was/is his "hero" - and there was a concert in which both played together. It seems it was filmed - something I would like to watch.

Here again one can notice, as Kinabalu remarked, the extraordinary energy and stamina of the group.


YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO "CONCERT IN NEW JAZZ"

Yosuke Yamashita,p
Seiichi Nakamura,ts,ss,cl
Takeo Moriyama,dr

1. Sate (Well) (Moriyama) 13:11
2. Mina's Second Theme (Yamashita) 06:44
3. Mokurin (Nakamura) 11:52
4. Gugan (Yamashita) 07:49

Recorded live at "Sankei Hall", Tokyo on 21st September, 1969

UNION UPS-20115

Yamashita Trio - Clay

Life's full of coincidence, isn't it? Yesterday I downloaded this album from the blog and listened through it. Today I dropped by a second-hand store and found it to my great surprise. If that wasn't enough, discovering that there was a scanner at work that could accommodate lp size covers was reason enough to make a post out of it. This was slipped into the comments section of the previous Yamashita trio post by pablo who digitised his own copy of the lp. No point in me replicating those worthy efforts.

Basic facts:

Side 1:
Mina's Second Theme (Yosuke Yamashita) 21:15

Side II
Mina's Second Theme (cont.)(Yosuke Yamashita) 7:35
Clay (Dedicated to Muhammad Ali) (Takeo Moriyama) 15:15

Akira Sakata - Clarinet & Altosax
Yosuke Yamashita - Piano
Takeo Moriyama - drums

Recorded June 2, 1974, live at the open-air III. New Jazz Festival in Moers, Germany

Released as Enja 2052.

Listening to this, I'm amazed at the sheer energy and stamina of these three musicians. Keeping it going at full throttle for well over 40 minutes is no mean feat and there is an intensity and an underlying sense of violence which is scenically captured in this You Tube film excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3Q060KI28

Heady stuff in other words and a source of inspiration for a younger generation mixing the in your face attitude of punk and rock with the abandonment of free impro. Perhaps no wonder that Sakata has recently played with the Scandinavian power trio The Thing. Mads Gustafson is a huge admirer, which shouldn't surprise anybody listening to these tracks.