Needle Time

  Kazumi Band - Ganaesia [AW-28002 JPN 1982 24-Bit FLAC] Another in my totally random occasional postings of Japanese jazz obscurities. I've covered Kazumi Watanabe before, the guitarist briefly formed Kazumi Band shortly after ceasing to be part of the YMO live band and a lengthy string of his own solo works. Gathering up several like-minded Japanese musicians, he repositioned to the long hot New York summer of 1982. Ganaesia was the line-up's second album, released on the fledgling Domo Records label following Watanabe's issues with Alfa Records and just before the Better Days label folded.  More rock than jazz, this album experiments with time signatures and the arrangement styles of  seventies complex American jazz-rock - hence the results can be a little over-indulgent, however you will get over that when you appreciate the exceptional skills of the five musicians involved in the recording sessions. Never released in the West, this instrumental album has more t...

  Kazumi Watanabe - Kylyn [COJY-9237 JPN 2007 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on the Better Days label in Japan in 1979, Kylyn was the eighth solo album by Japanese jazz guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. At the time Watanabe was the tour guitarist with Yellow Magic Orchestra, so he roped a few friends along, so this record is anything but a solo album. Production duties, keyboards and composition (everything except for a cover of Miles Davis' Milestones ) was dealt with by a certain Lyuichi Sakamoto (sic), Sakamoto's wife and fellow YMO'er Akiko Yano helped out on piano and vocals, the amazing Ray Ohara offered up the bass (Harry must have been busy), Jap-reggae guru Pecker played percussion ...oh, and Yukihiro Takahashi plays drums on four of the nine tracks. A1 199X A2 Sonic Boom A3 Water Ways Flow Backward Again A4 Milestones B1 E-Day Project B2 Akasaka Moon B3 Kylyn B4 I'll Be There B5 Mother Terra

  Ryuichi Sakamoto & Kazumi Watanabe - Tokyo Joe [TWJP-104 JPN 2019 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released in 1982, Tokyo Joe was a collaboration compilation of the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto & guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. Nippon Columbia briefly resurrected the Better Days label to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Tower Records in Japan and sold this repress exclusively in the Tokyo store. This compilation mixes disco, city-pop and electronica, forming an essential assemblage of the duo's collaboration. Watanabe is an exceptional guitarist who has released several (mostly Jazz) albums in his own right - see the video below for evidence of his excellence. The guitarist famously fell out with Alfa Records over royalties for YMO's live album, Public Pressure in 1980, leading to his parts being removed and reworked by Sakamoto A1 Tokyo Joe A2 The End Of Asia A3 Zai Guang Dong Shoo Nian (Live) A4 I'll Be There B1 E-Day Project B2 Thousand Knives B3 The River ...