Label: BBE

Released 2023

This latest station stop off is with the famed Nippon Columbia label, one of the biggest labels in Japan, whose jazz output embraces every possible style imaginable. Focusing on the key years 1968-1981, J Jazz volume 4 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig even deeper into their record collections and pull-out tracks that span styles ranging from solo to big band, jazz classical interpretations and heavy jazz rock, to febrile post-bop, white hot samba fusion, and modal psychedelic wig-outs. J Jazz volume 4 features icons such as drum master Takeo Moriyama, keyboard magi Hiromasa Suzuki, Fumio Itabashi, and Masahiko Satoh, and guitar wizards Kazumi Watanabe and Kiyoshi Sugimoto, alongside big band maestros and innovators Nobuo Hara and his Sharps and Flats, and Toshiyuki Miyama’s New Herd. Thunderous basslines nestle alongside glistening runs of electric piano, bubbling synths and air-tight drumming as the heavy psychedelic modal blues of Jiro Inagaki flows with the infectious samba grooves of Takashi Mizuhashi featuring Herbie Hancock; Shigeharu Mukai’s fusion funk epics take the music to another level and Mikio Masuda’s driving keyboard rhythms brings the heat to an incendiary dancefloor zone. With 7,000 words of extensive sleeve notes, J Jazz vol 4 comes in a triple 180g vinyl set inside a deluxe gatefold sleeve with obi strip plus a 4 page insert. Mastered at the Grammy-nominated Carvery Studio by Frank Merritt, this latest collection is a worthy successor to the preceding three volumes that have set the bar so high.

Track listing:

1. Takeo Moriyama – Exchange
2. Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media – The Ground For Peace
   
3. Nobuo Hara and his Sharps & Flats – Chakkiri Bushi
   
4. Tomoki Takahashi – Trial Road 
   
5. – A Muddy Muffin
6. Takashi Mizuhashi & Herbie Hancock – Samba de Negrito 
   
7. Hiromasa Suzuki – Scramble
   
8. Nobuo Hara and His Sharps & Flats – Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun
   
9. Kiyoshi Sugimoto – Jones Street
   
10. Hiromasa Suzuki – By The Red Stream 
    
11. Mickie Yoshino & Kazumi Watanabe – Kaleidoscope (Edit)
    
12. Toshiyuki Miyama and His New Herd – Ougi Denju-shiki
13. Shigeharu Mukai – Toppu 
    
14. Mikio Masuda – Mickey’s Samba