Label: Denon Jazz – YX-7516-ND
Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Japan / Released: Nov 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Nippon Columbia's 1st Studio, Tokyo, June 7, 8 & 9, 1977.
Design [Cover Design] – Masahiko Togashi
Photography By [Cover Photo] – Masahiko Togashi
Engineer – Masao Hayashi
Producer [Recording Direction] – Tsutomu Ueno, Yoshiharu Kawaguchi
Composed By – Masahiko Togashi
Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): - YX-7516-ND – A
Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): - YX-7516-ND – B
side 1:
A1 - Sketch 3 ............................................................................................................ 10:02
A2 - Sketch 4 .............................................................................................................. 6:43
side 2:
B1 - Sketch 2 .............................................................................................................. 7:01
B2 - Sketch 1 ............................................................................................................ 10:54
Personnel:
Masahiko Togashi – percussion
Masami Nakagawa – alto saxophone, flute, percussion
Takashi Kako – piano, percussion
Keiki Midorikawa – bass, cello, percussion
Not sure if the album, based on its title, is supposed to be a work-in-progress, with no final character whatsoever, or driven by some kind of desire to give shape to things at some point while performing. Togashi tends to overwhelm his fellow musicians and make it even more percussion-centric than expected, but here he queues, or builds up, significantly. Variations features a mixture of warm, reverberating, but isolated chords and pizzicato serialism at the alto sax and flute (I do recognize Masami Nakagawa, having listened to some of his albums). "Sketch" is the folkloric-inspired, rubato and boldly improvised - sounds amazing. "Sketch" is a fantasy for strings, flute, piano and percussion, airy and fragmented, alludes more to modern classical. Album "Sketch" is as traditionally conceived, even with Togashi forcing his bassist (Keiki Midorikawa) to remain in ostinato throughout his long improvisations, only to get himself moved in his own expressions later on. These are pretty serious and evolved free jazz compositions, worth listening to after some unstable strident acts.