Hidefumi Toki burst onto the scene back in the early 70s as the sax player in Toshiyuki Miyama's New Herd — in fact I was reminded of this album by Katonah's great recent post of Sunday Thing over on his always essential Private Press [even though Toki didn't actually play on that one]. Before long Toki was leading his own unit, and by the time City-Toki came out in 1978 he was just about at the top of his game. Most of what came next is not really worth exhuming — a sad decline into fuzak and session wilderness. But on this album, cut in NYC, he certainly shows he has the chops to hold his own with a rhythm section of the quality of Flanagan, Workman and Chambers. He's also come up with some nice compositions. I can't say it's absolutely all killer [to quote a line] but it's definitely more than just filler.
Recorded July 6 1978 at Sound Ideas Studio NYC; issued on Baystate; this is ripped from the 2005 JP-only CD reissue.
personnel:
Hidefumi Toki alto sax, soprano sax; Tommy Flanagan piano; Reggie Workman bass; Joe Chambers drums
There's a [not totally complete] Toki discography here...