Hiroki Miyano - Manhattan Skyline (1981, 2007)

Hiroki's own creative life began in Sapporo. As noted elsewhere on the web, Hiroki grew up collecting jazz records of early personal music idols like John McLaughlin and Django Reinhardt. By the age of 10, Hiroki had already bought a guitar and in short time began taking his first steps to play out around Tokyo’s storied jazz clubs. Somehow, in 1981, the noted editor of J-Jazz magazine Swing Journal clued in one Teo Macero (of Miles Davis fame) to the stylings of this young upstart. Shortly, Hiroki was signed to a contract with huge Japanese label Phillips and was sent out to NYC to record an album of originals with Teo functioning as producer. Working with truly gifted/prolific jazz session cats like Marcus Miller, Buddy Williams, and Ryo Kawasaki, they’d use his debut album (Manhattan Skyline) to launch off his career. ~ Extract by Diego Olivas, fondsound.com. 

Philips Records, 27PJ-1, 1981
Philips/Universal, DCT-1921, 2007
Recorded 17th-18th November, 1980 at Media Sound Studios, New York 

Musicians:
Hiroki Miyano - Acoustic Guitar, Arranger
Jeff Mironov - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Warren Bernhardt - Fender Rhodes
Jorge Dalto - Acoustic Piano
Ryo Kawasaki - Guitar Synthesizer
Marcus Miller - Electric Bass
Carol Steele - Percussion
Buddy Williams - Drums
Guests:
George Young - Soprano Sax, Sopranino (#1,3,5,7,9)
Dave Valentin - Flute (#2,4)
Ilana Morillo - Vocals (#3,8,9)

Tracks:
1. Let's Make Merry {Hiroki Miyano} (3:32)
2. Sunset City {Hiroki Miyano} (6:26)
3. Teo's Dance {Hiroki Miyano} (5:22)
4. Bird On The Wind {Hiroki Miyano} (5:23)
5. Slow Down For Love {Earl Klugh} (4:00)
6. Song Of Clouds {Ryo Kawasaki} (4:15)
7. Summer Light {Teo Macero} (3:28)
8. Go Away From Summer {Hiroki Miyano} (3:15)
9. Manhattan Skyline {Hiroki Miyano} (5:33) 

Total Time: 41:20 

Credits:
Executive Producer, Liner Notes - Hiroki Miyano
Producer, Arranger - Teo Macero
Recording & Mixing Engineer - Carl Beatty
Assistant Engineer - Lincoln Clapp
Cutting Engineer - Hiroshi Yuasa
A&R - Hiroshi Mitsuka
Design - Masao Ohgiya
Photography [Cover] - Tadayuki Naitoh
Photography - David Tan 

Bird On The Wind

Jim Pepper - Polar Bear Stomp

Certainly Jim Pepper has been one of my feature guys from the earliest days of this blog. When I think of it, Jim Pepper, Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin were the three saxophone voices I was obsessed with in the first year of the Crypt. Here is a re-visitation of a Pepper rarity in a seriously up-graded form with flac's and covers...the whole shebang!

"This trio album was made less than a year before Jim died at age of 50. The show was recorded at an obviously tiny club in Austria and has a real intimate feel to it. I've never heard of bassist Wayne Darling or drummer Bill Elgart but they are both quite good and fill their roles admirably. Darling in particular has some great moments, beginning with his sneaky lead into Greensleeves. The song starts out with what sounds like a bit of tune-up noodling and Pepper joking with someone in the background but Darling keeps going until suddenly he is playing the opening bass line from Coltrane's version on Africa Brass and soon Jim and Elgart jump into a wonderfully free and open version of the song. This album grows on me each time I hear it so if you're not thrilled on first listen, give it a couple more chances. I didn't much like Sonny Rollins' trio stuff at first either but now I love it and this album is charting a similar course for me."

Since I wrote that I've learned to love this album even more as a wonderfully warm and personal statement from a man near the end of his road. Jim's giant soul really shines out of this recording. Thank God this gem was preserved!

flac1

flac2