WaJazz - Japanese Jazz Spectacle Vol I : Deep, Heavy & Beautiful Jazz From Japan 1968 - 1984

From blazing hard bop to free jazz, to introspective saxophone solos and massive big band sounds, renowned Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa presents an essential 14 track collection of "WaJazz" music taken from the Nippon Columbia vaults. Featuring Jiro Inagaki, Minoru Muraoka, Hiroshi Suzuki, Hozan Yamamoto, Count Buffalo, Takeshi Inomata, and much more!

Japanese jazz has been recognized and celebrated by music lovers worldwide for decades. The origins of this trend may be traced back to the rare groove movement that flourished in the 1990s, but its current deep and wide popularity seems to be connected to the fact that Japanese people have been reevaluating their own jazz since the mid-2000s, locally referred to as WaJazz ("Wa" meaning Japan but also theShowa emperor period, from 1926 to 1989).

Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been a growing trend to move away from the DJ-focused perspective and to appreciate jazz with a deeper understanding. Nowadays, there is more and more interest in the background and roots in which jazz has developed in Japan, with Japanese jazz as a whole now considered as its own distinctive genre

This 14 track compilation has been carefully selected and compiled by Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa, who is the owner of Tokyo's Universounds record store. It comes on heavyweight vinyl with vast track-by-track liner notes by Ogawa and take sin everything from hard bop to free jazz with plenty of big and explosive moments as well as more deep and introspective sections of calm, all of which has been plucked from the vaults of Nippon Columbia. There is a reason Japanese jazz is so revered, and this record shows why.

Features

• Universounds, HMV Record Shop and 180g team up for an exceptional release: from blazing hard bop to free jazz, to introspective saxophone solos and massive big band sounds, renowned Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa presents an essential 14 track collection of “WaJazz” music taken from the Nippon Columbia vaults. Featuring Jiro Inagaki, Minoru Muraoka, Hiroshi Suzuki, Hozan Yamamoto, Count Buffalo, Takeshi Inomata, and much more!
  
• Essential 14 track collection of “WaJazz” music selected and compiled by renowned Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa, owner of the Universounds record store in Tokyo.
  
• Gatefold 180g heavy double vinyl LP. Comes with extensive track-by-track liner notes by Yusuke Ogawa.
  
• All tracks licensed by Nippon Columbia, Tokyo, Japan.
  
• Mastering and lacquer cut by Jukka Sarapää at Timmion Cutting Lab, Helsinki, Finland.
  
• Artwork by Nker

Tracklist

Side A

• A1. Tadaaki Misago & Tokyo Cuban Boys - Sakura Sakura
• A2. Minoru Muraoka - Muraiki
• A3. Count Buffalo & The Jazz Rock Band - Mago-Uta
• A4. Kiyoshi Sugimoto Quartet - D-51

Side B

• B1. Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd - Adult's Day
• B2. Soul Media - Breeze
• B3. George Otsuka - Sea View

Side C

• C1. Hozan Yamamoto, Masahiko Togashi, Yosuke Yamashita - Breath Prologue
• C2. Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media - Do It!
• C3. Hiroshi Suzuki - Romance
• C4. Masahiko Sato - Tochi Mo Kurumi Mo Fukiotose

Side D

• D1. Masahiko Togashi - Fourth Expression
• D2. Takeshi Inomata & Sound Limited - Mustache
• D3. Takeo Moriyama - Watarase

Notes

• Label: Universounds / WaJazz Series / 180g