Customer Reviews

Jazz Impressions of Japan

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was out of print for far too long! The album finds Brubeck, Desmond, and Co. at their fluid best, making pretty, intricate music that--to my ears at least--does justice to the Japanese inspirations for the music while still sounding very much like great American jazz. The closing piece, "Koto Song," is sublime.

Terrific sound quality, par for the course with Legacy's other great jazz reissues. It's a little short, but look at it this way: 35 minutes of great music played twice is 35 more minutes of greatness than you'd hear in a padded 70-minute release.

I was fascinated by the cover of this album. When I gazed at it and saw that it was Brubeck doing jazz with his quartet that was influenced by their tour in Japan, I decided to buy it without having heard it at all.

This was a great gamble. The music would appeal to most people who liked "Take Five." And the subtle touches of Japanese music and culture enhance the experience. It is a good thing that Brubeck didn't try to make an album of Japanese music without a Western foundation; that would probably have been a mistake. I am of the belief that music is often at its best when two or more styles are fused together. Such is the case here.

The packaging is wondferful and the sound is great. I have not been disappointed with a Columbia / Legacy reissue yet. The fact that this album has just been finally issued on CD for the first time after being out of print for years proves how underrated this album has always been. This is a great, unknown album from one of the more underappreciated jazz giants.

The 8 tracks on this album capture Brubeck at his best as a composer. He appeared to be consciously striving to achieve the simple, succinct, and profound features of haiku. "Rising Sun" is as understated and pretty a melody as I've ever heard from anyone. "Tokyo Traffic" is classic, west-coast cool. "Toki's Theme" is 60's camp. "Fujiyama" is a contemplative piece that features Brubeck sounding like Bach chasing notes around in a circle. "Zen is When" is an atmospheric, peaceful, and hypnotic lullaby. "The City is Crying" is vintage Brubeck Quartet that showcases Paul Desmond. "Osaka Blues" is a straight forward swing that allows Brubeck to stab harmonic chords over the pitch-perfect bass and druming of Wright and Morello, respectively. "Koto Song" is the most Japanese-sounding track on the album. Again, very atmospheric, very contemplative and very hypnotic.
I like this album every bit as much as "Time Out" and "West Side Story". "Jazz Impressions of Japan" should be in everyones jazz collection. It's great if you blast it and just as great if you have it as background music.

I got to Japan in October, 1962, and resided outside Yokohama until December, 1964, remembering quite well when Brubeck and company came to Tokyo the Spring of 1964. This album, though one of my favorites, has been out of print until recently when Sony finally re-released it to disc. Maybe there is yet hope for BOSSA NOVA USA.

Listening again to the disc this morning it tranported me back to those days in Tokyo and Yokohama when Japan was bustling and hurtling into the 18th Olympiad in Tokyo for the 1964 Olympic Games. When I landed in Japan all of Honshu, especially the Kanto Plain, was seemingly under contruction for the games that would soon begin, with most of the building & construction happening during the night time hours.

Many performers from Monk, Cannonball Adderley, to Peter, Paul, and Mary began to show up over there at Sankei Hall, and from the weekly This Week In Tokyo I could pick and choose to see whomever, wherever, and whenever. Since Tokyo was little more than 20 minutes from Yokohama Central Station by commuter train, I often spent as much time there as in Yokohama, a city of 16 kilometers (approx. 12 miles) from where I lived. And in late '63 or early '64 even got to see The Four Freshmen when they had a one night stand at the Officer's Club in Yokohama. In those mid 1960 years, Japan seemed a haven for visiting performers, and as today, the Japanese really enjoyed jazz. There were so many jazz coffee houses in Yokohama by the Isezakicho canal, one had little trouble lazing away off duty hours listening to jazz while sipping a Sloe Gin fizz.

For me, having lived in Japan at the time of this recording, experiencing daily the Japanese and their lifestyle, whenever I put this CD on, I am immediately transported back to the land of the Rising Sun. Impossible for any who have not lived there during that time to have the memories I have, but that aside, this is truly one of the quartet's better issues.

Dave Brubeck using his talented ear has truly captured the sound of Japan 1964, I know, for I lived there. Hai. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

Listen and enjoy. Kiku. Tanoshimu. Sayonara.

Semper Fi.

My first experience with the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Jazz Impressions of Japan" was a live performance at Providence College, Providence, RI, in 1964, not long after the quartet's return from Japan. I was thrilled to hear it as a nineteen-year-old and am even more awed by its uniqueness now that I am sixty-three. I hope others will discover or rediscover this marvelous musical set too.

I heard this CD on the radio and was instantly hooked. I have to say however that I am biased having been a Brubeck fan since the Fifties. This CD is a fine example of his ability to compose beautiful music with real meaning. It brings the music of Japan into the jazz idiom wonferfully. I love it.

Unmentioned in previous reviews is the fact that Japan itself was going through a economic transformation in the sixties and that reality permeates the music thoroughly. You can almost feel the progress on faster tracks such as the dizzying Tokyo Traffic and Toki's Theme, an infectious foot-tapping tune written to a busy, Japanese secretary. Overall, you've got more than just a couple things going on thematically; Jazz Impressions of Japan is both culturally and musically interwoven, jostling between an ancient medieval society and the economic juggernaut it has become. Musically, it's mostly traditional; pentatonic Japanese scales are utilized creatively and respectfully throughout the recording, although, as soloists, it sounds like Desmond covers more ground than Brubeck. But I also get the feeling Dave's composing thematically to a set of minimalist, rhythmic patterns distinct to Japanese music. Whatever the case, this recording only draws one deeper into a culture you really have to live in to fully understand; it's a complex record, but one that succeeds.

What a time capsule this little jazz album is! Don't get me wrong, by that I don't mean that it's dated. No, decades have passed, but the music here seems as fresh and jazzy as ever--sometimes it's sprightly and rambunctious, sometimes laid back and meditative, now it's red hot and then it's got a bit of the blues. But whatever the case, Dave Brubeck and his Quartet keep the tunes flowing along without missing a beat. This is definitely fine jazz music in the tradition of their classic "Time Out" album, only lesser known and with a mildly orientalish twist.

Still, listening to "Jazz Impressions of Japan" is like taking a trip back in time to Japan in the early sixties, around the very time Mr. Brubeck was getting those impressions and translating them into music. Which is kind of incredible, because only the last track ("Koto Song"--an ingenious fusion of fine koto melodies from Kyoto and jazz improvisation) explicitly adapts actual Japanese music in a recognizable manner, but all of them capture the moods of this lively decade of Japan's history with startling vividness, and that despite the annoyingly inauthentic "gong" sound they insist on using here and there throughout. "The music we have prepared tries to convey these minute but lasting impressions, somewhat in the manner of classical haiku, wherein the poet expects the reader to feel the scene himself as an experience," Brubeck explains in the liner notes, and so he succeeded, at least in my case.

Incidentally, the haiku theme permeates the liner notes, with Brubeck cleverly appending an appropriate poem to each track, including ones by three of the greats of the Haiku tradition: Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, and Yosa Buson. In that sense too this album is a time capsule, for it captures the incipient American fascination with refined aspects of Japanese culture like haiku poetry and Zen philosophy right there as it was maturing in the cradle of the whole beatnik jazz scene and starting to take baby steps beyond. The oddly minimalist "Zen is When" is a perfect case in point, of course. But on the road from Tokyo to Osaka these Dharma Bums come dressed impeccably in suit and tie, ready to take you along with a musical high.

Fans will delight in this surprisingly subtle, uniquely nuanced 1964 jazz travelogue as "Jazz Impressions Of Japan," finds The Dave Brubeck Quartet solidly in their prime. Paul Desmond shines in particular, lending a haunting soulfulness to tracks like "Fujiyama," and "Koto Song". A real standout among Brubeck's other time & place-inspired albums ("Dave Digs Disney," "Jazz Impressions Of Eurasia," "Jazz Impressions Of New York,"), one can't help but wonder what kind of time Dave had in Japan as there is an introspective, melancholy quality to many of the tracks, evoking visions of rain-slicked streets at night, a stranger in a strange land. Other tracks feature the band in a more typically upbeat mood with regionally-specific pentatonic scales, gongs and other percussive elements. There are some really striking moments on this album, but most importantly throughout is the brand of cool that The Dave Brubeck Quartet made their signature contribution to society.

Unmentioned in previous reviews is the fact that Japan itself was going through a transition in the sixties and that reality permeates the music thoroughly. You can almost feel the economic progress on faster tracks such as the dizzying Tokyo Traffic and Toki's Theme, a catchy tune written to a busy secretary. Overall, you've got more than just a couple things going on thematically; 'Impressions...' is both culturally and musically interwoven, jostling between an ancient medieval society and the economic juggernaut it has become.

Make no mistake: this is a complex record, but one that succeeds.