Japanese Jazz Fusion

Casiopea, T-Square, Jimsaku, and everything in between.. Submit requests!

[dominoline]

Live! Cross Hearts, Masato Honda, 2003

Incredible concert by Masato Honda and co. Tomohito Aoki (RIP) with cosmic bass lines and solos. 

Look at the size of that one bass sax! I think it’s sad to see that Masato Honda can’t dance around when his instruments are suspended like they are on the third song.

I see a Masato Honda that wants to be free.

Watch the whole thing if you want to see Masato Honda play like a hundred different instruments. 

[dominoline]

Truth, T-Square, 1991

A rad video with Masato Honda's refreshing take on the T-Square classic. 

[dominoline]

Faces, T-Square, 1992

It makes me sad to think that we'll realistically speaking, we'll never see this song performed live ever again in this form. 

[dominoline]

Bad Moon, T-Square, 1998

Masato Honda's last live performance with T-Square as their lead saxophonist. 

[dominoline]

Black Joke, Casiopea, 2013

I haven't been blown away by Casiopea 3rd's performances in the past, but it looks like they've really developed a great sound in this Crossover Night performance of Black Joke, one of Casiopea's oldest songs. Kiyomi Otaka's organs really add a distinct flavor from Mukaiya's piano sounds and her solo in this bit is remarkable.

Woo hoo!

[dominoline]

Live, Casiopea, 1986

Enjoy your Sunday with some live Casiopea audio that'll go down smooth. 

Hopefully it doesn't zoom by.

[dominoline]

site update!

a couple quick updates:

_new flashy banner (the DL stands for Domino Line!)

_Requests link in the sidebar! (japanese jazz fusion only!)

_changed background color

keep jammin'

[dominoline]

Night Dreamer, T-Square, 1984

To new adventures in the new year. Rock on! 

Also: New Banner!

[dominoline]

Papillon, T-Square

Happy Holidays Japanese Jazz Fusion lovers, explorers, listeners!

[dominoline]

Explorer, T-SQUARE, 1998

I've had this one stuck in my head for a couple days. He's a really high quality performance of it live- one of Masato's last performances as the head saxophonist of T-Square.

[dominoline]

Princess Moon, Casiopea, 1988

Here's a clean live performance with some cool shots of Casiopea running around having a picnic or something. I never heard this song until last week, and I love the acoustic guitar lead, as well as the clavichord sounding piano part. And the bass line is funky of course.

Also, Mukaiya-san has some pretty good Spanish!

[dominoline]

Casiopea, Live in London, 1983

Got a little bit of time this weekend? Play this in the background while you do whatever it is that you have to do this weekend, and turn it into something that you want to do. 

First time I've stumbled on a high quality full recording of this concert online. I'm excited! I'm on Asayake right now, and it seems like a real gem of a concert. That'll be another score for that 1983 Casiopea sound. 

Enjoy. Have a great week!

[dominoline]

Marlene with Masato Honda and B.B. Station, It's Magic, 2007

I can't believe I haven't heard this before! Really something different. Sorry for posting this song so much. I love it.

Marlene is actually a Filipina who has been in Japan for a long time. Interesting, huh?

[dominoline]

T-Square, Midnight Lover ~ Show Dance, 1998

Midnight Lover and Show Dance! The perfect mix of groovy and playful. Show Dance is so much fun! You can totally recognize that "vintage" T-Square from Senba-san's percussive energy. Cowbell, steel drums and woodblocks and other really weird percussion instrument things. 

I hope I'm that cool when I'm his age.

Man, what I would give to be at this 20th Anniversary Concert.

I've been getting into the history of T-Square a lot lately, and I think what's so remarkable about these anniversary concerts is how many of their early/original members they bring back for these concerts for the T-Square "Super" Band, like Kiyohiko Senba, Junko Miyagi, and Toyoyuki Tanak. All amazing. ALL the time. Just listen to that percussion, keyboard, and bass and how well they all gel together. 

It's perfect. Also: Michael S. Kawai rocks the drums. What is that thing in Senba's mouth?

[dominoline]

T-Square, 1978 (?)

Some people from left to right, 

Masahiro Andoh, Yuhji Nakamura, Junko Miyagi, Kiyohiko Senba, Michael Kawai, Takeshi Itoh.. and the last two I'm not sure who they are.

But look at early T-Square! Now I finally understand who some of the less familiar people are in the anniversary concerts!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever. I love how all the guys got up to take the picture around Junko. What a cutie!

[dominoline]

Japanese Soul Brothers, T-Square, 2008

Wow. What a jam-packed concert. There's lots of little details that are easy to miss if you don't follow a Japanese Jazz Fusion Blog (or read Youtube comments.)

1. This electrifying performance comes from the "Wonderful Days" concert. What a cool shirt they're all wearing! It is a shame that you don't get the added visual bonus of seeing all the cool outfits that T-Square members usually wear.

2. You can see here that Toyoyuki Tanaka, T-Square's bassist from the 1980s is here playing alongside Mitsuru Sutoh. Fortunately, he's gotten a lot better in the ten years preceding this performance. In the 20th anniversary concert, Tanaka-san seemed to struggle with keeping the rhythm on the solo, especially with the teethy part (you can even see how nervous he gets being next to Sutoh). But in this concert, he's able to flawlessly pull off his signature bass solo from nearly 20 years earlier. 

3. Speaking of bass solos, this performance has what might be the most fun Japanese Jazz Fusion bass solo duel of all time. SUTOH VS. TANAKA

If I can think of more I'll post more. All in all just a fun performance. One of my favorite T-Square songs.

[dominoline]

Masato Honda and Takeshi Itoh, the two leading sax/flute/EWI players for T-Square.

Maybe not they're such rivals after all! 

...is it just me or does Honda-san look a little nervous next to futuristic samurai Takeshi Itoh?

I should do a write-up about their history for this blog.