ITARU OKI TRIO – Satsujin-Kyoshitsu (LP-1970) - ( 沖至トリオ - 殺人教室 )

Label: Jazz Creaters – JC-1

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Japan - Released: 1970

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded in Tokyo, February 1970.

(Album title is read as "Satsujin Kyoshitsu"; usually translated as "Homicide Classroom".

English translations for the title "Homicide Classroom" and for track B2 - "Eternal Lyric" were given on the obi of this release, but not on this LP.)

Recording Engineer by – Kinji Hayashi

Produced, Liner Notes by – Teruto Soejima (see note)

Photography by – Katsuyuki Oda

Design by – Nobuo Umemori

A1 - 水との会話 "Aporia" . . . 12:09

A2 - 図形的発展 "Spectral" . . . 7:04

B1 - 空間の飛翔 "Papilio" . . . 11:13

B2 - 永遠の詩 "Eternal Lyric" . . . 5:20

ITARU OKI – trumpet, fluegelhorn, cowbell, triangle, bells, Indian bells, wood block, backet trumpet

KEIKI MIDORIKAWA – bass, piano, gong

HOZUMI TANAKA – drums, gongs, timpani

This album is now almost impossible to obtain, so it is my pleasure to present it here. Enjoy!

Note:

Teruto Soejima, Tokyo, Japan

Jazz critic, producer, film artist, at DUG in Shinjuku

Probably the one person who introduced Japanese Free Jazz to European audiences.

As Producer - Outside Japan:

Since 1979, has produced and organized overseas performances by over 30 Japanese performing arts groups (jazz, Japanese traditional music, avant-garde theater, etc.). These include three European tours (in 1998, 2000, and 2002) by the jazz orchestra Shibusashirazu; a concert in Germany (in 1995) by the shakuhachi player Hozan Yamamoto; and a tour of Russia and Lithuania (in 1992) by the improvisational music trio Ton Klami.

2006 - Served as art director of the five-day festival "Jazz in Japan 2006" in Paris, France.

In Japan:

Has organized such events as the 14-day free jazz festival Inspiration and Power (in 1974 and 1976), the Pan Music Festival '82, and the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra Japan Tour (in 1996).

I recommend his books:

Gendai Jazz no Choryu [Currents in Contemporary Jazz] (1994)

Nihon Free Jazz-shi [The History of Japanese Free Jazz] (2002)

If you find it, buy this album!