Showing posts with label Takashi Kako. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Takashi Kako. Show all posts

Thursday, December 31, 2020

MASAHIKO TOGASHI – Voice From Yonder (Denon ‎– YX-7519-ND / LP-1978)




Label: Denon ‎– YX-7519-ND
Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: Jul 1978
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on 2-3 February 1978, at Nippon Columbia's 1st Studio, Tokyo.
Japanese Original Press
Illustration [Cover] – Shozo Shinoda
Design [Cover] – Sign
Engineer – Masao Hayashi
Recording Supervisor – Yoshiharu Kawaguchi
Translated By [Poems] – Tom Oshidari
Composed By – Masahiko Togashi
Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): YX-7519-ND – A
Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): YX-7519-ND – B

side 1:
A1 - Voice From Yonder .......................................................................................... 13:40
A2 - Silence ............................................................................................................... 2:20
A3 - Welcome ............................................................................................................ 3:01

side 2:
B1 - Travelers .......................................................................................................... 12:13
B2 - It's Time ............................................................................................................. 3:34
B3 - Farewell ............................................................................................................. 2:35

Personnel:
Masahiko Togashi – percussion
Yoshiaki Fujikawa – reed, percussion
Takashi Kako – piano, percussion
Keiki Midorikawa – bass, cello, percussion

Note:
Recorded on 2-3 February 1978.
Production date on the record label says June 1978.
Production date on the sleeve says July 1978.
Liner notes (Japanese) written in May 1978.
Backside of the sleeve listed Personel as Masahiko Togashi Quartet. The album however is published with Masahiko Togashi as artist.

Masahiko Togashi (富樫 雅彦, Togashi Masahiko), March 22, 1940, Tokyo - August 22, 2007, Kanagawa) was a Japanese jazz percussionist and composer.




Togashi grew up in a musical household; his father was a double-bassist in a swing jazz ensemble, and Togashi learned violin and drums, playing the latter in his father's band. He worked with Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Tony Scott in the 1950s, then founded the ensemble Jazz Academy in 1961 with Hideto Kanai, Masabumi Kikuchi, and Masayuki Takayanagi. He was an early free jazz leader in Japan, playing in this idiom with Yosuke Yamashita and performing with American musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Blue Mitchell, Lee Morgan, and Sonny Rollins on Japanese tours.

Togashi lost the use of his legs in an accident in 1969, and designed a new kit that would allow him to continue playing. Togashi’s technical expertise on a wide range of percussion instruments allows him to introduce into his performances telling effects that add intriguingly exotic undertones.
Later associations included performing or recording with Paul Bley, Don Cherry, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Steve Lacy, Gary Peacock, Masahiko Sato, and Yuji Takahashi. 



If you find it, buy this album!

MASAHIKO TOGASHI QUARTET – Sketch (Denon ‎– YX-7516-ND / LP-1977)




Label: Denon Jazz ‎– YX-7516-ND
Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: Nov 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation 
Recorded at Nippon Columbia's 1st Studio, Tokyo, June 7, 8 & 9, 1977.
Design [Cover Design] – Masahiko Togashi
Photography By [Cover Photo] – Masahiko Togashi
Engineer – Masao Hayashi
Producer [Recording Direction] – Tsutomu Ueno, Yoshiharu Kawaguchi
Composed By – Masahiko Togashi
Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): - YX-7516-ND – A
Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): - YX-7516-ND – B

side 1:
A1 - Sketch 3 ............................................................................................................ 10:02
A2 - Sketch 4 .............................................................................................................. 6:43

side 2:
B1 - Sketch 2 .............................................................................................................. 7:01
B2 - Sketch 1 ............................................................................................................ 10:54

Personnel:
Masahiko Togashi – percussion
Masami Nakagawa – alto saxophone, flute, percussion
Takashi Kako – piano, percussion
Keiki Midorikawa – bass, cello, percussion


I picked up "Sketch" (LP-1977) a rarity - it happens to be considered one of the three very important free-jazz LP's (avant, creative music, regardless...) in the country's (Japan) musical index on Quartet. Otherwise, Togashi seems a prolific composer, with this album being one of the best, if still a non notable one, or an all-over-the-place collaborator, with the Quartet as a particular condition. Quartet itself isn't really a designative term, since on all three such albums - this one, and two earlier "Speed & Space" from 1969 and also from 1969 "We Now Create" - the only constant presence is Togashi himself.



Not sure if the album, based on its title, is supposed to be a work-in-progress, with no final character whatsoever, or driven by some kind of desire to give shape to things at some point while performing. Togashi tends to overwhelm his fellow musicians and make it even more percussion-centric than expected, but here he queues, or builds up, significantly. Variations features a mixture of warm, reverberating, but isolated chords and pizzicato serialism at the alto sax and flute (I do recognize Masami Nakagawa, having listened to some of his albums). "Sketch" is the folkloric-inspired, rubato and boldly improvised - sounds amazing. "Sketch" is a fantasy for strings, flute, piano and percussion, airy and fragmented, alludes more to modern classical. Album "Sketch" is as traditionally conceived, even with Togashi forcing his bassist (Keiki Midorikawa) to remain in ostinato throughout his long improvisations, only to get himself moved in his own expressions later on. These are pretty serious and evolved free jazz compositions,  worth listening to after some unstable strident acts.

(Review by M. D)



If you find it, buy this album!