Kawasaki, Ryo - Eight Mile Road CD
SKU
URP-UCCJ-9165
If you like the electric 70s period of Miles and other electric jazz/fusion of the 70s, there's a lot of great releases from the 70s and into the 80s from the Japanese jazz scene that is well worth investigating.
Ryo Kawasaki was one of the first Japanese jazz musicians to make a name in the USA, releasing a number of albums on RCA in the 70s and playing with heavy hitters of the day (I saw him in late spring 1975 at the Village Vanguard with Elvin Jones). This is an electric, funky fusion release from 1976.
"Eight Mile Road is a follow up album to Prism (1975) recorded by Ryo Kawasaki for East Wind Records. At the time of this recording, he was working and touring with Elvin Jones Jazz Machine and the first two tracks of this album were conceived during the tour with this band.
In addition to the same rhythm section from Prism, Kawasaki has invited saxophonist Sam Morrison (who was the last saxophonist with Miles Davis band until Davis' retirement during 1975) and pianist Andy Laverne (from Stan Getz's band at that time) to add jazzy acoustic flavor over his jazz funk-oriented compositions and electric sound.
This album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios built by Jimi Hendrix, and also won the best recording of the year by Japanese Jazz magazine Swing Journal in 1976."
- LabelUniversal Music Japan
- UPC4988005870711