Label: Columbia – JDX-42
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold / Country: Japan / Released: 1970
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded live at Yamaha Hall, Tokyo, June 17, 1970
Made By – Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.
Composed By – Masahiko Sato
Liner Notes – Hisamitsu Noguchi and Jun Numata
Matrix / Runout (Side A): SX-2311 - JDX-42-A 1- A
Matrix / Runout (Side B): SX-2312 - JDX-42-B 1- B
side 1:
A - Phase 1 ............................................................................................................. 20:48
side 2:
B - Phase 2 ............................................................................................................. 17:55
Masahiko Sato – piano
One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Sato, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Sato's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his later projects.
Born in Tokyo, in 1941, Masahiko Sato's earliest influences came from Olivier Messiaen and Yuji Takahashi, although the pianist earned his living playing in various jazz combos in Japan, Europe and the USA throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a jazz soloist, arranger, free player, or even as organist on the more extreme Japanese rock LPs of the time, Masahiko Sato successfully navigated his way through it all. Indeed, in this way, Sato is probably the Japanese equivalent of German free spirit Wolfgang Dauner, with whom he played in the very early 1970s.
If you find it, buy this album!