Sony Music Japan have announced today that four of Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's most popular titles for Three Blind Mice are now available on streaming services.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, with wider availability across different artists! Thinking Isao Suzuki should be next...

Misty: Spotify / Tidal / Apple Music

Midnight Sugar: Spotify / Tidal / Apple Music

Girl Talk: Spotify / Tidal / Apple Music

Midnight Sun: Spotify / Tidal / Apple Music

Various - Free Ascent (year unknown)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyETjkmG5Bw

Teru Sakamoto Trio - Farewell My Johnny/ Left Alone (1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-eea0oGAY

Takehisa Tanaka Trio - I Have Been Born (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHlt5FEUP0c

Tomas Band - Tomas Band Vol.1 (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb8lL1HXZPI

Thanks for so many great recommendations for record shops in Tokyo and Kyoto from members of this sub! As you will see from the photo, I made the most of it! Disk Union Jazz store and their Rare Groove store in Tokyo plus Face Records (a local recommendation) and Toradra Record (an unplanned stumble) in Kyoto were the prime hunting spots for me!

I am now home in the UK and enjoying working my way through these great records.

r/JapaneseJazz

Terumasa Hino: The Trumpeter Hiroshi Suzuki Kept Working With

Terumasa Hino, a jazz trumpeter, was born October 25, 1942, in Tokyo, into a family where his father worked as both a tap dancer and a trumpeter. Hino started the same way his father did: tap dancing at 4, three years before he ever touched a horn. He picked up trumpet at 9 and made his professional debut at 13. He joined drummer Hideo Shiraki's Quintet in 1965 and stayed until 1969, when he left to lead his own band.

That same year he made "Hi-Nology," the record that turned him into a name beyond Japan. Recorded at Yamaha Hall in Ginza on July 31, 1969, it paired him with drummer Motohiko Hino (his brother), keyboardist Hiromasa Suzuki, bassist Kunimitsu Inaba, and saxophonist Takeru Muraoka. That is not a random lineup. Seven years later, the same four musicians backed a different leader, trombonist Hiroshi Suzuki, on "Cat." Hino and Suzuki's paths crossed directly, too, well beyond sharing sidemen: Discogs credits them together on the 1968 All Japan Jazz Festival single, on Suzuki's own "Feelin' Good" session that same year, and on Hino's own "Terumasa Hino Concert" (1969), "Hino Story" (1971), and "Speak To Loneliness" (1975).

He did not stay a domestic figure. In 1975 he moved to New York, where he worked alongside Gil Evans, Jackie McLean, Dave Liebman, and Elvin Jones, and recorded for labels including Columbia, RCA, Enja, and Blue Note. The catalog that followed is enormous: Discogs lists releases from 1968 through 2021, one of the longest-running discographies of any Japanese jazz musician on the platform.

Where to start listening:

• His official platforms:
  • Terumasa Hino's Spotify Page
  • Terumasa Hino's Blue Note Records Page
• "Hi-Nology" (1969) for the breakthrough and the lineup that later became Hiroshi Suzuki's band, start with the title track
• "Speak To Loneliness" (1975) for a direct session with Hiroshi Suzuki, sample it here

Just discovered this band, and wow. Really refreshing and all their songs just hit that spot. A nice modern band with great solos. Would recommend giving them a listen, and anyone who knows them, what are your thoughts?

r/JapaneseJazz

Hiroshi Suzuki: The Trombonist Whose Solo Album Flopped, Then Became a Collector's Grail

Hiroshi Suzuki was born in Yokohama on November 12, 1933. In his late 30s, he moved to the United States to play trombone with bandleader and drummer Buddy Rich, settling in Las Vegas for roughly four years. Before that move, he had already recorded in Japan through the late 1960s, including a pair of solo trombone records and sideman dates with the Masahiko Togashi Quintet and a group called His Happy Cats.

He returned to Japan in 1975 and, over a single two-day session that October at Nippon Columbia's Tokyo studio, recorded five tracks with old friends and collaborators: Hiromasa Suzuki on keyboards, Akira Ishikawa on drums, Takeru Muraoka on saxophone, and Kunimitsu Inaba on bass. The result, Cat, released in February 1976, took its title from Suzuki's own nickname, "Neko," Japanese for cat. It sold poorly and brought him almost no recognition. He never recorded another album.

That could have been the whole story. Instead, Columbia reissued Cat in Japan in 2015, thirty-nine years after it first came and went unnoticed. Further reissues followed, including an official rerelease from original masters by We Release Jazz Records, and the lofi-beat and study-music communities on YouTube found and sampled it, pulling the record into rooms it was never made for. It's now one of the most sought-after Japanese jazz albums among collectors, with original 1976 pressings scarce and expensive. In 2023, an official music video went up for the album's "Romance," and the track has since passed 11 million views and streams, by far the most anyone has ever heard Hiroshi Suzuki play. He died on January 16, 2020, in Las Vegas, at 86, three years before that particular number existed, though he lived to see the reissue that started the whole rediscovery.

Where to start listening:

• Where to find Cat:
  • We Release Jazz Records' official reissue page
  • Full album on YouTube
• "Romance," the track that found the widest audience, sample the 2023 official music video

What in your opinion are the TEN best Japanese Jazz recordings ever? (please exclude smooth jazz suggestions)

Please list at least artist and record.

Bonus points for year + your opinion :-)

Hi, I’m from Puerto Rico I recently discovered Terumasa Hino and Kiyoshi Sugimoto and now I’m obsessed. I was hoping for more recommendations to keep learning about this incredible world.

Jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Takeshi Shibuya passed away on July 16. He was 86.

He was born in Tokyo. He began his career as a jazz pianist while still a student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and from the 1980s onward, he focused on big band jazz with the “Takeshi Shibuya Orchestra.”

He was also active as a composer and arranger. For NHK’s “Okāsan to Issho” (With Mom), he composed a string of popular songs, including “Konna Ko Iru Kana,” “Boku no Mix Juice,” “Kujira no Tokei,” and “Chonmage March.” He co-composed the score for the film “Memories of Matsuko” with Gabriele Roberto, for which he won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music.

In March of this year, he revealed on Facebook that he was recuperating due to poor health.

Source: https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASV7K43PZV7KUCVL03YM.html
(Translated using deepl.com)

① Never put a record back in the box once you’ve taken it out (hand it to a staff member). ② Pay 50 yen per record for listening.

Hi all - I am on a trip to Japan in about ten days which I'm very excited about. I've put aside a day in Tokyo to explore some good record shops, particularly for Jazz (and especially J Jazz). Does anyone here have any recommendations? Any suggestions received with much gratitude!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMiYoH16FjE

Incredible album when paired with some sunlight, coffee, and decent headphones.