incl joe claussell remix

henrik schwarz imprint. tip!

till today fumio itabashi is a vital part of the japanese jazz culture as a live performer and film score composer. those who want to see how he makes love with his piano should check the world wide web for the french documentary jazzed out, that captured his unique way of playing in one episode. but as music is always firstly for the ears, and not for the eyes, this little letter in-front of you would rather like to recommend to play the “watarase” recordings loud to get hooked by the highly infectious piano gems that have been recorded at nippon columbia 1st studio in tokyo on 12th and 13th of octo-ber 1981. they will haunt you. they will come for good. and they will force you to be a good friend with the repeat button – whatever medium you chose to surrender to the piano jazz music of fumio itabashi.

(lp with obi strip) the peak work of japans long-standing leading jazz drummer, takeo moriyama

urban/soul/blues/r&b/gospel

our latest examination of esoteric, modal & progressive jazz of the 20th century has taken us to japan. the liberating force of jazz has been created and felt all around the world, but few nations on earth embraced the jazz message with the passion and intensity of japan. from the dawn of the jazz age to the present day, japanese audiences have been renowned tastemakers, enthusiasts and champions of the music in the 1980s, japan was the biggest per capita market in the world for jazz records, and it has even been said that japanese jazz fans kept the jazz record industry alive through the lean years of the 1970s, when the music fell from commercial favour in the land of its birth.