Reviews that mention Sabu Toyozumi
May 8, 2022
Hokusai
NoBusiness NBCD 134
Giuseppe Doronzo/Pino Basile
Aterraterr
Tora Records Tora 002
Paulina Owczarek & Peter Orins
You Never Know
Microcid 025
Liudas Mockūnas/Christian Windfeld
Pacemaker
NoBusiness NBLP 147
Creating perceptive creative music programs with only reeds and percussion calls on the realized skills of sophisticated improvisers. Younger and veteran players, the duos on these discs put together astute sessions by expanding the parameters by emphasizing varied approaches. MORE
December 18, 2021
Misaki Castle Tower
Chap Chap Records CPCD-0190
Itaru Oki Quartet
Live at Jazz Spot Combo 1975
NoBusiness NBCD 143
Takagi/Kongo/Takeuchi/Koyama
Live at Little John, Yokohama 1999
NoBusiness NBCD 144
Masayuki JoJo Takayangi/Nobuyoshi Ino/Masabumi Puu Kikuchi
Live at Jazz Inn Lovely 1990
NoBusiness NBCD 135
Taku Sugimoto & Takashi Masubuchi
Live at Otooto & Permian
Confront Core Series core 16
Something in the Air: Japanese Improvised Music Has Taken and MORE
October 12, 2021
The Aiki
NoBusiness Records CD 120
Tony Oxley/Alan Davie
Elaborations of Particulars
Confront Core 20
Kapital Band 1
International Solidariät
Ni Vu Ni Connu LP 020
Piano-drum duets from three different decades demonstrate the shifting and similar parameters of this form of improvised music over the years. Confirmed once again as well is how despite instrumental similarity the conceptions and programs differ markedly.
Most committed to Free Jazz is The Aiki, which may surprise those who know pianist Masahiko Satoh’s music for film, TV and backing singers. But he’s also worked with the likes of Akira Sakata. His partner on these extended improvisations from 1997 is Japanese free music legend Sabu Toyozumi, who a quarter century later is still refining exploratory percussion with younger players like Rick Countryman. On two tracks of roughly the same length, keyboard elaboration is pronounced, penetrating or profound. The slippery counterpoint set up involves the pianist building up arpeggios or key stabbing at the instrument’s highest pitches as the drummer’s cymbal cracks and press rolls vibrate alongside, with some cowbell whacks for emphasis. By the midpoint of “The Move for the Quiet” after Toyozumi pushes a modified march tempo to jumps and gallops, Satoh’s carefully shaped conveyer belt of notes is transformed into a syncopated version of “Chopsticks”. With the drummer’s rhythm as unvarying as that from a drum machine, Satoh shifts from the mocking interlude to waves of kinetic glissandi and Energy Music-like pounding. These push and pull variations, and the equivalent face-off on the other track confirms the duo’s surging power. As they continue rampaging up and down the scales and reveal notable theme variations, Toyozumi expresses his enthusiasm for the proceedings with shrieking whistles as well as active slaps, rim shots and metal crackles. MORE
August 3, 2021
By Philippe Robert and My Cat is an Alien
Lenka Lente
More than music reviews yet less than extended commentaries, Free Jazz Manifesto is a somewhat idiosyncratic list of 169 albums deemed essential to any Free Music collection created by one French and two Italian experts in the field. Each selection is described in one brief paragraph in French by veteran Gallic music journalist/author Philippe Robert and in another blurb crafted in dialect-inflected English prose by Italians Maurizio and Roberto Opalio who perform experimental music as the duo My Cat is an Alien. MORE
June 7, 2021
I Am a Village
FMR CD 597-0920
Dalgoo
Liberté Égalité Fraternité
Jazz Werkstatt JW 210
Topping a double bass and drum rhythm section with two reeds is a common improvised music trope. Just how diverse the results can be though is illustrated by a comparison of one live and one studio sets by these periodically convened combos.
Part of a long-running series of performances between veteran Japanese percussionist Sabu Toyozumi and American alto saxophonist Rick Countryman, Philippines recorded I Am a Village’s international reach is extended by adding Filipino double bassist Simon Tan and Malaysian tenor saxophonist Yong Yandesen. Both have worked with the duo in various combinations over the years. A comeback of sorts involving German musicians who have lived in the Netherlands and a Dutch player resident in Germany, Liberté Égalité Fraternité is a new CD by Dalgoo, which existed from 1998 to 2007 and reformed in 2017. The quartet is made up of Germans, bassist Meinrad Kneer and drummer Christian Marien, plus German multi-reedist Tobias Klein who lives in Amsterdam and Dutch multi-reedist Lothar Ohlmeier who lives in Berlin. MORE
February 6, 2021
Future of Change
Chap-Chap Records CPCD 017
Larry Ochs/Aram Shelton Quartet
Continental Drift
Clean Feed CF 555 CD
Balancing the timbres of two saxophones in Free Music involves some delicacy, no matter how advanced the program may be. To ensure equilibrium among the participants ingenious synergy must be established. That’s what’s created by these magnetic discs, although improvisational concepts are almost converse.
Future of Change is an out-and-out wedge of FreeImprov in three extended episodes. The chief protagonists are Japanese percussionist Sabu Toyozumi who has worked with everyone from John Russell to Kaoru Abe and American alto saxophonist Rick Countryman, who records frequently with the veteran drummer. Yong Yandsen, a Malaysian tenor saxophonist, who was part of an earlier session with the others two alongside a bassist, is the third player. Continental Drift does feature a bass player, two in fact, San Diego-based Scott Walton and Mark Dresser, who each play on the separate sessions combined for this disc. Stockholm’s Kjell Nordeson, an associate of continental and American players, supplies the sophisticated drumming. But the disc’s focus involves interpreting compositions by its co-leaders; Bay area tenor/sopranino saxophonist Larry Ochs and alto saxophonist Aram Shelton, who now resides in Budapest. MORE
January 21, 2021
NPR 15th Annual Jazz Critics Poll: 2020
American Website
Ken Waxman’s Ballot
Ken Waxman (Jazz Word)
NEW RELEASES
1. Virtual Company, Virtual Company (Confront)
2. Edward "Kidd" Jordan-Joel Futterman-William Parker-Hamid Drake, A Tribute to Alvin Fielder: Live at Vision Festival XXIV (Mahakala Music)
3. Urs Blöchlinger Revisited, Harry Doesn't Mind (Leo)
4. Jason Kao Hwang, Human Rites Trio (True Sound)
5. Liquid Quintet, Bouquet (Sirulita -19)
6. ROPE [Frank Paul Schubert-Uwe Oberg-Paul Rogers-Mark Sanders], Open Ends (Trouble in the East) MORE
August 12, 2020
Sabu Toyozumi/Simon Tan/Rick Countryman/Yong Yandesen
Voices of the Spirit
Chap Chap Records CPCD 016
As xenophobic North Americans and Europeans fret about the technological and commercial acumen emanating from the Far East, tolerant musicians have expressed admiration for players from that area who bring out new ideas. Exemplar of the situation is Jazz and improvised music and that’s why Voices of the Spirit should be welcomed by anyone interested in sonic evolution. The three extended essays in Free Jazz feature veteran Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi, Filipino double bassist Simon Tan, Malaysian tenor saxophonist Yong Yandesen and American alto saxophonist Rick Countryman. MORE
November 17, 2019
Sol Abstraction
Sol Disk SD 1901
Arashi
Jikan
PNL Records PNL 045
Axel Dörner/Toshimaru Nakanura
In Cotton and Wool
Ftarri ftarari-980
Tim Olive & Yan Jun
Brother of Divinity
845 Audio 845-10
Kang Tang Hwan/Midori Takada
An Eternal Moment
NoBusiness Records NBCD 115
Something in the Air: Japanese Improvisation Moves Far Beyond its Island Base
By Ken Waxman
Legendary as the country where every type of Western music has some followers and where every disc extant is rumored to exist in some form or another, Japan likewise has a healthy Jazz and Free Music scene. This appreciation extends to home-grown improvisers, but few are known throughout the larger musical world. Not only do these discs demonstrate how this situation is changing as Asian players interact with more Westerners, but some outsider players have also moved there since they found the country’s audiences sympathetic to their music. MORE
December 2, 2018
Mannyoka
NoBusiness Records NBCD 107
Toyozumi/Countryman
JYA-NE
Manila Free Jazz No #
Almost 40 years separate these two live sessions, but the person providing the cultivated rhythmic connections is the same: Sabu Toyozumi, now 74. One of Japan’s Free Music pioneers along with Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe, Toyozumi has also played with the likes of Derek Bailey and John Russell. Acknowledge today as an authoritative beat-maker in the class of fellow veterans Han Bennink and Milford Graves, he continues on the unconventional exploratory music path, sometimes working with Japanese noise bands and also soloing on the erhu. MORE
December 2, 2018
JYA-NE
Manila Free Jazz No #
Kaoru Abe/Sabu Toyozumi
Mannyoka
NoBusiness Records NBCD 107
Almost 40 years separate these two live sessions, but the person providing the cultivated rhythmic connections is the same: Sabu Toyozumi, now 74. One of Japan’s Free Music pioneers along with Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe, Toyozumi has also played with the likes of Derek Bailey and John Russell. Acknowledge today as an authoritative beat-maker in the class of fellow veterans Han Bennink and Milford Graves, he continues on the unconventional exploratory music path, sometimes working with Japanese noise bands and also soloing on the erhu. MORE
February 1, 2018
The Conscience
NoBusiness Records NBCD 99
Paul Rutherford
in Backward Times (1979-2007)
Emanem 5045
Although one of the pioneers of solo improvising in a Free Music context, British trombonist Paul Rutherford (1940- 2007) made as important a contribution in group situations. Besides Iskra 1903 and membership in other regularly constituted aggregations, the trombonist performed with a wide variety of international partners and these CDs capture some distinctive live sets.
Recorded in Tokoname in 1999, The Conscience’s five improvisations feature Rutherford and Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi, a near contemporary, whose associations ranged from fellow Japanese like Kaoru Abe to foreigners like Derek Bailey and Fred Van Hove, some of whom also collaborated with the trombonist. Coincidentally The Japanese tracks fit neatly among those on in Backward Times which include a 1988 London duet with bassist Paul Rogers, another 2007 London meeting with pianist Veryan Weston and cellist Marcio Mattos and two continental solo sets, the earlier (1979) and more provocative of which from Milan has the trombonist working with electronics so that in essence he’s accompanying himself. MORE