TAKEO MORIYAMA QUARTET – Flush Up (LP-1977 / Union Records - Re-1982)

Label: Union Jazz – KUL-5021, Union Records – KUL-5021

Series: Union Jazz 1500 Series – 2nd pressing

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue / Country: Japan / Released: 1982

Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Modal, Free Improvisation

Recorded Live at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo, in March 1 and 2, 1977.

Originally release 1977 (Teichiku Records ‎– GM-5008)

Made By – Teichiku Records Co., Ltd.

Engineer – Shinichi Kikuchi

Mastered By – Shuji Sakaguchi

Executive-Producer – Toshio Imai

Matrix / side A, Runout: LS - 5333 X1

Matrix / side B, Runout: LS - 5333 X2

A  -  Flush Up .................................................................................................. 18:13

         (Fumio Itabashi)

B1 - Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise .............................................................. 14:59

         (O. Hammerstein II, S. Romberg)

B2 - Yellow Bear ............................................................................................... 8:09

         (Fumio Itabashi)

Personnel:

Takeo Moriyama – drums, percussion

Fumio Itabashi – piano

Tomoki Takahashi – tenor saxophone, sopranino saxophone

Hideaki Mochizuki – bass

Note:

"Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" is a song with music by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II from the 1928 operetta The New Moon.

Drummer Takeo Moriyama recorded a live album in 1977, 1 and 2 March at Shinjuku Pit Inn, Tokyo, the first after the end work with the Yosuke Yamashita Trio.

"Flush Up" and "Yellow Bear" the original songs of Fumio Itabashi who played a musical staff at Takeo Moriyama Quartet during this period. The quartet consists of: drummer Takeo Moriyama, saxophonist Tomoki Takahashi, jazz pianist Fumio Itabashi and bass player Hideaki Mochizuki.

"FLUSH UP" is alongside "HUSH-A-BYE", LP where can fully enjoy the talented masterful performances based on the powerful druming of Moriyama full-length.

A masterpiece of Japanese spiritual jazz.

If you find it, buy this album!

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Chiasma (MPS Records / BASF - LP-1976)

Label: MPS Records / BASF – 68.115 / 20 22678-6

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1976

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live June 6, 1975 at the Heidelberger Jazztage.

Cover Design By – Horst Weber

Photography By [Reverse Side] – Ralph Quinke

Recorded By [Engineer] – Carlos Albrecht

Mixed on Tonstudio Bauer

Produced By – Horst Weber

Sleeve Notes [Translation] – Thomas Fitterling

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, stamped): A 1(lying) 0022 678 S 1 3 20

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, stamped): A 1(lying) 0022 678 S 2 3 20

Exactly like release 20 22678-6 but with a sticker MPS - 68.115 on the back side cover (upper right corner), red label MPS/BASF release.

A1 - Double Helix ................................................................................................. 4:24

A2 - Nita ............................................................................................................... 4:51

A3 - Chiasma ....................................................................................................... 7:14

B1 - Horse Trip .................................................................................................... 3:44

B2 - Introhach ...................................................................................................... 4:05

B3 - Hachi .......................................................................................................... 12:50

Yosuke Yamashita – piano

Akira Sakata – alto saxophone – Akira Sakata

Takeo Moriyama – drums, percussion

Leader & founded by pianist Yosuke Yamashita, most references encountered refer to him as “The Japanese Cecil Taylor”! Taylor has clearly been a tremendous inspiration for Yosuke who has frequently eulogized him & lavished his idol with the highest of adulation as well as sharing at least one performance together. But Yosuke & indeed his trio are no epigone or second-rate plagiarists. Paired with long time affiliate saxophonist Akira Sakata, an absolute madman of screaming, implacable excoriation, manic instability & one of the most truly ferocious, precise & demolishingly devastating drummers of all time Takeo Moriyama, they unleash an unimaginably ascetic sustained avalanche of bellicosity & divine-wrath of mythical man-beast mensuration. like martial-deities, they foment an allo-secular degree of extremes, urgency, threat & sybaritic smouldering impetuosity & emotion-lead rampageous incandescence.

YYT-Akira Sakata One of the things so exciting & precious about these guys is their commitment to doing battle in the outer-limits, as in do-or-die, foot through the floor fulgurous-ferocity. There’s just no fucking around, they ALWAYS deliver, & their over-spilling magnanimity & direct & staunchly substantial application renders that charred, direct-hit satisfaction. More than anything actually, the most consecutive, tremulous & assaulting component is Takeo, who only seems to be interested in “going for guts” & enforcing his speed-fixated, mesomorphic fanaticism & budo enhanced (surely?) power, consistently collapsing the foundries & throwing their severed pieces in a million directions. His power, stamina & fury are legendary phenomenology, but also his punctilious & tight playing, with clean & vicious rolls galore shredding adversaries & obstacles. The guy even looks the part, like notorious 1960’s psycho lone gangster actor Bunko Sugiwara, aviators, Buddhist crop, flaccid fag lolling out his chops á-la tepodama-hoodlum & attire to match (perhaps a tanto in the waist-line?!). Takeo is the only member that never seems to contrite or enact remission, he’s just always killing it & enmeshes intensity even on the very rare slower/para sections. As for Sakata, this guy makes the sax screel like a banshee, constantly bursting the nerve with those high pitched strained screamers & super-fast prismic- paracemes. YYT-Takeo Moriyama He endows some of the most emotive & non-rational imprecation to edge-up the instability. & of course we have Yosuke himself, definitely the most dynamic member who sometimes rides the current & plays a series of variables (rather than solely erratic & fast) & fractal techniques. When not careening all over the keys with his cohorts rankled & rash explosives, he mangles many forms of vaguely traditional & melodic motives with the drastic & dissolute free-form of aggressive improvisation & Avant-Garde. Together at full reciprocity velocity, these philippic conflagrating aiguilles of remorseless jocund excess, tearing through like some kind of biblical storm, bursting & inspissating with over-abundance & splendorous savagery just chop the blocks like nobody’s business. Amazing! & one of the best & most intense Off-Road Free Jazz experiences available...

Note:

Versions of “Chiasma” also occur on three of LP records (Clay, Frozen Days & the Up-To Date) as well as two alternative takes of “Double Helix”.

If you find it, buy this album!

AKIRA SAKATA TRIO – Counter Clockwise Trip (Frasco-FS-7001/LP-1975)

Label: Frasco – FS-7001

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo / Country: Japan / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in München Union Studio, West Germany  3,4,5 July 1975.

Cover Design By – Ishikawa Hideomi

Photography By – Uchida Takumi

Engineer [Recording] By – Günther Zipelius

Assistent Engineer By – George Dirtinger

Produce  – Akira Sakata for Frasco

Album Produce – Kitazawa Yasutaka

A3, B1, B2 written-by – Akira Sakata

Matrix / Runout: (Side A runout, stamped) FS7001A

Matrix / Runout: (Side B runout, stamped) FS7001B

A1 - Frascoration ............................................................................................. 8:54

         (T. Moriyama)

A2 - Bass Folk Song No.2 ............................................................................... 2:30

         (A. Roidinger)

A3 - Automatic Moon ...................................................................................... 7:29

B1 - Combination ............................................................................................ 9:51

B2 - Counter-Clockwise Trip ........................................................................... 9:03

Akira Sakata – alto saxophone, clarinet

Adelhard Roidinger – bass

Takeo Moriyama – drums, percussion

Yosuke Yamashita "Chiasma" recorded on a Trio Summer Europe Tour on June 6, 1975 at the Heidelberger Jazztage, Germany.
Album "Counter Clockwise Trip" is then recorded in a month later (3,4,5 July) in Munich Union Studio, Germany, as Akira Sakata Trio. Akira Sakata (saxophone, clarinet) is a leader, and there is a bassist Adelhard Roidinger in place of Yosuke Yamashita. Drums & percussion, of course, the same master Takeo Moriyama.

Sakata going through the sharp pulse of Moriyama Takeo as expected. The bass is also as much talkative as saxophone and drum as much as possible, and it is fully adapted to their essence, sticking to beat-driven things. From the beginning to the end, an album that was dominated by a sense of speed.

Even so, the impression of Moriyama Takeo's drum is softer than Yosuke Yamashita Trio. He got something like some sort of mechanical precision, I thought, this is also very interesting...

If you find it, buy this album!

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Up-To-Date (2LP-1975)

Label: Crown Records – JAW 2001 - 2

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Japan / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation, Contemporary Jazz

Live / Recording-Date : April, 28. 1975

Recorded At – Koseinenkin Kaikan

Mastered At – Crown Record Studio No. 1

Record Company – Crown Record Co., Ltd.

A - Duo (Introduction) . . . 19:45

B - Chiasma . . . 18:16

C - Up-To-Date . . . 19:51

D - Up-To-Date . . . 21:20

YOSUKE YAMASHITA – piano

AKIRA SAKATA – saxophones

TAKEO MORIYAMA – drums

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Up-To-Date, 2LP on Crown Records. Very rare vinyl record Japanese Free Jazz, timeless good, a volcano of energy, a masterpiece.

Live - April, 28. 1975. Brutal and feverish Japanese free jazz bomb. The trio is in top form.

Enjoy!

If you accidentally missed it, I recommend also:

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Arashi (2LP-1977)

http://differentperspectivesinmyroom.blogspot.com/2014/04/yosuke-yamashita-trio-gerald-ohshita.html

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Frozen Days (LP-1975)

http://differentperspectivesinmyroom.blogspot.com/2014/04/yosuke-yamashita-trio-frozen-days-lp.html

If you find it, buy this album!

YOSUKE YAMASHITA TRIO – Frozen Days (LP-1975)

Label: Crown – JAW 1001

Series: Crown Golden Series – SL-2936

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: Japan - Released: 1975

(Reissue CD is 1995, Panam ‎– CRCP-164)

Style: Free Jazz, Avant-garde Jazz

Recorded on 25th to 28th September, 1974 at Crown Record No.1 Studio.

Manufactured By – Crown Record Co., Ltd.

Record Company – Crown Record Co., Ltd.

In front of you is another Japanese challenge, Yosuke Yamashita Trio, fascinating music making, you'll enjoy every single note.

A1 - Prophase . . . 3:30

A2 - Double Helix . . . 4:45

A3 - Chiasma . . . 9:46

B1 - Interphase . . . 9:15

B2 - Mitochondria . . . 9:49

YOSUKE YAMASHITA – piano

AKIRA SAKATA – alto saxophone

TAKEO MORIYAMA – drums

YOSUKE YAMASHITA

Born in 26 February 1942, Tokyo, Japan. Although he had played professionally at the age of 17, pianist Yamashita went on to study at the Kunitachi College of Music (1962-67). He established himself playing in the quartets of Masahiko Togashi and Sadao Watanabe. The earliest influence of Bill Evans soon gave way to the influence of Cecil Taylor. When Yamashita formed his own trio with Akira Sakata (alto saxophone) and Takeo Moriyama (drums) and toured Europe (1974) the music was so wild the group was known as the Kamikaze Trio. For inspiration Yamashita looked back to ‘the beginning of jazz - Europe had the system but Africa had all the feeling. All the material I use belongs to the system, but as long as I can stand on the outside and approach things from the outside, I will never be suffocated’. He kept a trio going throughout the 70s and continued to play as a sideman with the bands of Kazumi Takeda (tenor saxophone) and Seuchi Nakamura (tenor saxophone). From 1974 he made regular trips to Europe with the trio in Germany as well as playing with Manfred Schoof (1975), then as a soloist and in 1977 in a duo with bass player Adellard Roidinger. He disbanded the trio in 1983 when he felt that he had achieved as much as he could in that format. Yamashita formed a big band with an eclectic style and performed in many varied situations including solo performances of his own versions of classical pieces, playing with Kodo, a Japanese drum choir, and having pieces performed by the Ozaka Philharmonic Orchestra. During the 90s he was again playing and touring with a trio, comprising Cecil McBee and Pheeroan Ak Laff. Yamashita also composes for films including Fazâfakkâ (UK title: The Girl Of Silence) (1995), Kanzo Sensei (UK title: Dr. Akagi) (1998) and Sukedachi-ya Sukeroku (UK title: Vengeance For Sale) (2001). From 2004 he was visiting professor at Tokyo’s Kunitachi College of Music.

If you find it, buy this album!