I found about him about a month ago off dustygroove. I bought rising sun, then scoped out Unicorn a week later. Amazing stuff. I can't begin to describe how much I like his music. Rising sun is
Cosine. Got a lot of his jap imports from the 80s on vinyl, mainly for the covers and the sidemen but yeah, if you can take the dated synth sounds, there's some good music in there.
If anyone needs an example of great "fusion jazz", let them hear Rising Sun. I That ARP and Moog bass is killer. I haven't heard the Unicorn one yet. Stomu Yamashita is another great, although sometimes overlooked, Japanese-born musician.
Cosine. Got a lot of his jap imports from the 80s on vinyl, mainly for the covers and the sidemen but yeah, if you can take the dated synth sounds, there's some good music in there.
His sister Junko is a noted artist too (a painter IIRC).
Ill need to check her out. Whats your favourite of his albums? Having only Unicorn and Rising Sun, Unicorn was kind of a shock to me. I expected it was gunna be just like Rising Sun being chilled out laid back fonky jazz with nice synth touches but its completely different. Are his other albums like that? Do they all sound different but still hold the fusion feel?
If anyone needs an example of great "fusion jazz", let them hear Rising Sun. I That ARP and Moog bass is killer. I haven't heard the Unicorn one yet. Stomu Yamashita is another great, although sometimes overlooked, Japanese-born musician.
I didnt expect it too be THAT good when I bought it but oh boy was I wrong. I also digg that Liston Smith (I think he uses the synth) does a real nice use of the "noise" affect.
Are his other albums like that? Do they all sound different but still hold the fusion feel?
They are mo' tepid-er. Not as tepid as Fattburger. I guess they had access to the highest-end studio kit and therefore polished the sound and arrangement to within an inch of it's life because they could.
But as I said earlier, if you ignore the sounds and get the colour of the chords, there is much to like.
Are his other albums like that? Do they all sound different but still hold the fusion feel?
They are mo' tepid-er. Not as tepid as Fattburger. I guess they had access to the highest-end studio kit and therefore polished the sound and arrangement to within an inch of it's life because they could.
But as I said earlier, if you ignore the sounds and get the colour of the chords, there is much to like.
Good to know. Ill be spending any money I can on his other albums.
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This is a good link for info on all that 70s/80s Japanese fusion:
http://sudo.3.pro.tok2.com/Quest/cards/N/NakamuraTeruo/index.html
His sister Junko is a noted artist too (a painter IIRC).
They are mo' tepid-er. Not as tepid as Fattburger. I guess they had access to the highest-end studio kit and therefore polished the sound and arrangement to within an inch of it's life because they could.
But as I said earlier, if you ignore the sounds and get the colour of the chords, there is much to like.
Good to know. Ill be spending any money I can on his other albums.