''Masabumi Kikuchi with Gil Evans'' is a studio album led by jazz pianist and composer

Masabumi Kikuchi was a Japanese jazz pianist and composer known for his unique playing style. He worked with many diverse musicians, including Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, and collaborated with Gil Evans a ...

with support of

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role ...

, recorded during Gil's first visitation to Japan in 1972. CD version was released from

EmArcy EmArcy Records is a jazz record label founded in 1954 by the American Mercury Records. The name is a phonetic spelling of "MRC", the initials for Mercury Record Company. During the 1950s and 1960s, musicians such as Max Roach, Clifford Brown ...

label in 1989 with additional three tracks.

Background

Masabumi Kikuchi first visited and met with Gil Evans in the spring of 1972 when Masabumi had been traveling to New York City to join in

Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrate ...

' group. Masabumi and Gil hit it off to organize hybrid orchestra from Japan and the US. Toshinari Koinuma had managed to coordinate the personnels, hired 21 Japanese players besides Masabumi, and Gil visited Japan for the first time with

Billy Harper Billy Harper (born January 17, 1943) is an American jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of John Coltrane, Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.Chris KelseyBilly Harper Biogr ...

and

Marvin Peterson Hannibal Lokumbe (born Marvin Peterson on November 11, 1948) is an American jazz trumpeter. Career A native of Smithville, Texas, United States, he is sometimes known by the name "Hannibal". He attended high school in Texas City, Texas and was i ...

. The three men arrived at

Haneda Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

on June 22. The concert was named "Kikuchi Masabumi Recital", and held at four cities; started from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

on 27th,

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Wakayama Wakayama may refer to: *Wakayama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan *Wakayama (city), the capital city of Wakayama Prefecture, Japan *Wakayama Station, a train station in Wakayama, Wakayama *Wakayama University , or , is a national university loc ...

and

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

. Although the original plan was to do live recording at Tokyo concert, Masabumi and Gil insisted studio recording after all the concerts. The three men had attended and experienced another studio recording of

Kimiko Kasai (born December 15, 1945 in Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan) is a retired Japanese jazz singer. Biography Kimiko was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1945. She first became interested in jazz at the age of 13 after hearing Chris Connor, Chris Connor's song "All About ...

's album ''

Satin Doll "Satin Doll" is a jazz standard written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Written in 1953, the song has been recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, 101 Strings, Terry Callier, and Nancy Wilson. Its chord progression is ...

'' at CBS/Sony 1st Studio in Tokyo on 26th. All the orchestra members came together at Victor Studio in Tokyo again on July 4, and the recording took all night long.

Track listing

Personnel

*Masabumi Kikuchi – electric piano *

– conductor, piano *

– tenor sax, flute, chime *

– trumpet, flugel horn * Kohsuke Mine – alto sax, soprano sax *Shigeo Suzuki – alto sax, flute *Kiyoshige Matsubara – French horn *Nao Yamamoto – French horn *Shozo Nakagawa – piccolo flute, alto flute, bass flute *Takashi Asahi – piccolo flute, alto flute, bass flute *Yukio Etoh – piccolo flute, alto flute, bass flute *Kunitoshi Shinohara – trumpet, flugel horn *Takehisa Suzuki – trumpet, flugel horn *Hiroshi Munekiyo – tuba *Kikuzo Tado – tuba *Tadataka Nakazawa – bass tuba *Michiko Takahashi – marimba, vibraphone *

Masayuki Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisation / noise musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions (later New Direction Unit), which recorded several albums throughout the 1970s. He also ...

– electric guitar *Sadanori Nakamure – electric guitar *Yoshio Suzuki – bass *Isao Etoh – electric bass *

Masahiko Togashi was a Japanese jazz percussionist and composer. Togashi grew up in a musical household; his father was a double-bassist in a swing jazz ensemble, and Togashi learned violin and drums, playing the latter in his father's band. He worked with Sadao ...

– drums *Yoshiyuki Nakamura – drums *Kohichi Yamaguchi – timpani *Hideo Miyata – percussion

References

{{Authority control 1970 albums Masabumi Kikuchi albums