TOSHIYUKI MIYAMA & HIS NEW HERD / MASAHIKO SATOH

A. "Ichi" (19:21) Is this really jazz-rock fusion? Despite its definite inspiration from both John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Pharoah Sanders, it also expresses a debt to Tony Williams, Don Ellis, and Miles Davis. It's definitely avant garde--like 1960s big band avant garde--and, I believe, highly scripted. There's even a similarity here to the earliest music published by Magma. The longer it plays, the more I find myself liking it! The odd electronic sounds remind me very much of some of the weird sounds coming out of Teo Macero's treatment of Miles Davis' band's Bitches Brew songs as well as Herbie Hancock's upcoming work with his Headhunters and beyond while it also traipses into the realm of soundtrack electronica. Part 2 of the jam sees a turn toward a quieter, more sparsely populated instrumental palette while the individual and banked horns take turns blasting their two cents worth, again sounding more Big Band-like (even more DON ELLIS-like) as the instruments reconstitute and rebuild their momentum. Fascintating, interesting, entertaining, (36.75/40)

B1. "Ni" (12:17) weird sound and harmonic experiments in discordant, sound-fx-type chiller music that, while employing the latest in electronic instrumental sound that were commonly being incorporated into the jazz-rock infusionists, is not as Jazz-Rock oriented as it is avant garde classical--though there is a lot in common here, for me, with the awful stuff coming from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. It also reminds me of the chaotic cacophonous music used in the pre-cognition chimpanzee scenes in the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack. The drumming, when there is any (after the 6:50 mark), sometimes outright sucks, at other times comes across as absolutely brilliant. This is a very impressive "song"--especially for the development and evolution of avant-garde jazz. It is certainly entertaining, but not exactly what I'd call enjoyable music--and certainly not the type of music you would use for a dance party. (21.5/25)

B2. "San" (4:53) opens up with some fast moving lounge jazz of a very serious nature. But then the big band horns enter and make it obvious that this music could hardly be played in a dark, smokey jazz lounge--at least not the ones made de rigeur since the secretive Underworld mentality of the Beatnik and BeBop eras had formed around this kind of music. Then, the crazy, polyphonic and polymetric practices of Toshiyuki's music takes over. Again: impressive if not very cozy or heart-warming. (9.25/10)

Total Time 36:31

Not the kind of music I was expecting from a 1972 "Jazz-Rock Fusion" release: this is more akin to the work that French-Belgian bands UNIVERS ZERO and PRÉSENT would be doing at the end of the decade.

P.S. The version I found of this album has the black and red cover and is titled "Yamataifu" with MASAHIKO SATO listed as one of Toshiyuki's collaborators--the arranger and electric pianist.

A-/4.5 stars; an excellent, possibly masterpiece-level recording of avant garde Jazz-Rock that would most highly recommended to those prog lovers who are into highly technical yet experimental avant garde music.

The opener "ICHI" is over 19 minutes in length and those blasting horns in melancholy are incredible. This song is such a trip and the electric piano kills. Not to mention again this overly talented drummer. The horns though give me goosebumps. Another one that has to be heard. I actually thought of NUCLEUS when I heard that last track "SAN" with that melancholic atmosphere and trumpet blasts. Jazzy bass to start with drums and electric piano. Uptempo and lights out playing, especially the drummer. Then the horns kick in with that NUCLEUS sound. It's almost overwhelming all these sounds like they've been thrown in a blender but it works!

A special release if there ever was one, and one the Japan music scene should be proud of. Did I mention this was released back in 1972?

"What a wild beast!" was the first thought that ran through my head upon listening to this album. Holy moly! What we've got here is equal measures imaginative big band leanings and ferocious fusion layers that never quite spell out jazz rock yet come very close. The splicing of famous jazz cats on Yamataifu is equally impressive as it is baffling - consisting of the famous Japanese big band conductor Toshiyuki Miyama, who at the time of this recording was 52(!), and the well renowned pianist Masahiko Satoh who went on to become one of Japan's most influential players.

Starting off with an ominous whiff of horns - a brooding dark wave of droning winds, Yamataifu reveals an unearthly musical presence - making this listener feel as if he was swimming through slush ice soil, upwards and away on grainy droopy sandpaper wings. The stagnant floating earth starts rumbling in tiny jitters as small rhythmic splashes dipper dapper their way into the mix. Immeasurable sounds suddenly emanate from way in the back and there's no telling whether we're treated to guitars, synths or the local back alley cat trying to push it's way through the mouth piece of a bassoon. It builds up slowly and the younger audiences will probably write it off as proto post rock with trinkets of insatiable whirlwind effects and bubbling energies.......but this is so much more - a blast from the past! A calculated storm in your skull.

Soon the jazz beat commences - the doouab shidioouuii babab bidouiuuoii badahh badaah and everything disintegrates - in all directions no less. Furious piano sprints, bopping bass lines and oddly played horn sections that threaten to overtake the airspace of mosquitoes and all those critters who fancy their flying adventures to be square and angular.

This is essentially avantguarde jazz with a big bootful of grooves. Add to that an uncanny way about spacey infusions such as sequencers, atonal wind instruments and frantically played Santana-like percussion. The whole thing feels like it's happening on a dime - on a cloud somewhere high above the earth, where musicians come to whack out and fill themselves with psychedelic plants, irreverent books and hip females who adore the strangeness of it all.

Take a bit of 'Atlantis' era Sun Ra, a dash of Mwandishi sorcery, a pinch of Miles and a teeny tiny touch of ayahuasca and you're nearly there. Again relegating just exactly how this sounds and moreover feels is rather like fitting a dinosaur into a phone booth. There's no room and one of those things is increasingly hard to get a hold of these days. 4.5 stars.

Yamataifu contains only two long compositions, played in manner of psychedelic Davis period or Hancock's Mwandishi trilogy influenced. Complex, with many rhythm changes, plenty of free form soloing and very spacey atmosphere, this album is one of real evidences how Japanese progressive fusion was born. More dark, psychedelic and avant than Davis or Hancock's work's, this album is as important in Japanese prog legacy Mwandishi or electric Davis period in Western world.

Very interesting listening till nowadays, this album is must have for everyone with interest to Japanese progressive fusion and avant. Very recommended!

Basically Toshiyuki is an alt saxophone player so we can feel the enormous power via their saxophone plays. Wonderful echoic sax dream, based on deep and heavy bass and drums. Fully drenched with bulky Nippon (Japanese) native flavour and tension, freely improvised instrumental battles go ahead inorganically ... but magnificent passion of each player we can feel ... obviously, even with spiritual or ghostly explosion here and there. Believe me, not simply traditional Japanese Avantgarde Jazz, but with full of nationalism and eccentricity in such a powerful big band. Over 35 minutes we cannot feel anymore but this palpitation. Feel directly this Japanese pride.

Again thanks Greg for your brilliant recommendation. We Japanese are very happy everyone all around the world can enjoy their fascinating stuff.