YUJI TAKAHASHI – Seasons (ALM Records ‎– AL-14 / LP-1977)

Label: ALM Records ‎– AL-14
Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: 1977
Style: Post-Modern, Avant-garde, Experimental
Live concert "Yuji Takahashi plays J.S. Bach & J. Cage", May 30. 1974.
Art Direction – Nobukage Torii
Artwork – Tatsuya Yamaguchi
Engineer – Kousaku Urano
Other [Concert Planner, Promoter] – Tost
Producer – Yukio Kojima
Composed By – J.S. Bach (tracks: B2), John Cage (tracks: A1 to B1)
Comes with insert in japanese language.
Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, stamped): AL-14-A 1S 2
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, stamped): AL-14-B 1S 2

side 1:
A1 - (John Cage) - Cheap Imitation [Excerpts] ......................................................... 6:40
A2 – (John Cage) - Metamorphosis ........................................................................ 16:43

side 2:
B1 - (John Cage) - The Seasons, Ballet In One Act ................................................ 15:26
B2 - (J.S. Bach) - Toccata No. 2 In C-Minor BWV911 .............................................. 11:12

YUJI TAKAHASHI – piano

Cheap Imitation written in 1969.
Metamorphosis written in 1938.
The Seasons, Ballet In One Act written in 1947.

All pieces recorded from the live concert "Yuji Takahashi plays J.S. Bach & J. Cage", May 30. 1974.

Note:
Track B1 - The Seasons, Ballet In One Act, is stated on both the back cover and the label to last 14:40, however, the actual duration is 15:26. 

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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. 

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MASAHIKO TOGASHI & MASAYUKI TAKAYANAGI – Pulsation (LP-1983)

Label: Paddle Wheel ‎– K28P 6244
Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: 1983
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
A live performance: Masahiko Togashi Zojoji Concert No.13.
Recorded May 27, 1983 at Zojoji Hall, Tokyo.
Artwork – Masahiko Togashi
Photography By – Mieko Togashi, Tatsuo Minami, Toshihiro Asakura
Engineer – Hatsuro Takanami
Engineer [Assistant] – Seiji Kaneko
Mastered By – Akira Makino
Liner Notes [in Japanese] – Toshihiko Shimizu
Producer – Motohiko Takawa
Composed By – Masahiko Togashi
Manufactured By – King Record Co. Ltd
Matrix / Runout (Side A label): K28P 6244 A
Matrix / Runout (Side B label): K28P 6244 B

side 1:
A - Inner Pulsation ................................................................................................... 22:05

side 2:
B - Outer Pulsation .................................................................................................. 22:47

Personnel:
Masahiko Togashi – percussion, pearl drums 
Masayuki Takayanagi – guitar, Ren Hayashi's sound effecters

Virtually unnoticed in the West, the Japanese free jazz scene in the 1970s was bursting with creativity. The musicians shared a strong sense of adventure, as they welcomed the developments of creative music and free improvisation from USA and Europe while trying to find their own voice with a completely personal approach to improvised music. One of the main protagonists of that season was Masayuki Takayanagi, a strikingly original guitarist and musical thinker with a strong passion for both mainstream jazz and extreme noise. A generation younger but equally important was Masahiko Togashi, a drummer that, also due to an accident that forced him on a wheelchair after 1970, developed a unique approach to drums and percussions, using silence as an integral part of music making.

Originally released by Paddle Wheel in 1983, Pulsation documents a live concert at Zojoji Hall in Tokyo, and is the first record Togashi and Takayanagi made as a duo, even if they had worked together since the 1960s. The record is divided in two tracks ("Inner Pulsation" and "Outer Pulsation"), each one about 22 minutes in length, mirroring the original LP sides. The performance can be regarded as a single piece though, with a clearly symmetrical structure, even if the musicians cover much musical ground over the course of the album. The opening and closing sections are reserved to Togashi, that alternates between deeply resonating gongs and a relentless activity on the toms. Takayanagi enters the picture with sparse scratching sounds, slowly building an intense dialogue with the drummer, moving through a series of sections characterized by different approaches to both acoustic and electric guitars, with bowed strings, fast arpeggios, rumbling drones or heavily filtered electronic sounds, often opting to treat the guitar as an object to be manipulated more than a proper musical instrument. Throughout the performance Togashi tries different colors on the drum kit, adding bells, chains, shakers and tin cans, always returning to the toms in a mostly arhythmic percussive activity that maintains an intriguing, almost ritualistic dimension.

The extreme abstractness of the music guarantees many possibilities, but the main themes here are pure sound and space, investigated through a massive use of silence, ever-changing dynamics and slow structural developments unfolding with a mysterious musical logic. The improvisational process is always on full display, with the musicians constantly listening and responding to each other, and when the music opens up to more readable materials the effect is powerful: a few seconds of melodic statements from the guitar have the impact of a fully formed solo; a couple of minutes of insisting patterns on the drums achieves an almost hypnotic effect.

(Review By Nicola Negri, AAJ) 

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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!