Toshiko Akiyoshi / LewTabackin Big Band - Salted Gingko Nuts

barabara sounds sez:  

Autumn's here: time for one of my favorite seasonal snacks. Great with beer, even better with sake, and perfect too with Toshiko's peerless big band music. This one (on Baystate from 1978) is particularly nutritious. It's a 16-piece aggregation, but they played together so much over the course of that decade that they sound like one seamless unit. There are also some great solos from Bobby Shew on trumpet and Gary Foster (alto). Tasty... 

Yawno sez: 

The Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Orchestra's first few recordings were made for RCA (usually released first in Japan and then later in the U.S.) but, after that association ended in 1978, most of the big band's recordings ended up being released by their own private Ascent label. The orchestra (based in Los Angeles) was one of the finest big bands of the era, as can be heard on this superior outing with Akiyoshi on piano, Tabackin displaying very different styles on tenor and flute, altoists Gary Foster and Dick Spencer, and trumpeter Bobby Shew. The leader's arrangements reflect both her roots in swinging bop and her Asian heritage. Highlights of the excellent set are "Chasing After Love" (based on "Lover"), the lyrical "Elusive Dream," and "Son of Road Time."

There's lots more about Toshiko over here on Susan Fleet's web site.

And All About Jazz has some nice interviews, including this one here...

Kampai!

Gil Evans Orchestra - Blues in Orbit

barabara sounds sez:

More big band madness as Gil embraces the rhythms of rock and fuses them with free (-ish) jazz charts. There's some really good stuff on here, especially the George Russell-penned title track, but I'm not sure it really adds up to a cohesive whole. That's probably because it's been welded together from two different sessions two years apart. Not (despite what Yawno says) a classic. But still mighty fine...

the guardian (John Fordham) sez:

An intriguing and overlooked curiosity from the great arranger/composer Gil Evans..., the German label Enja having remastered it and restored it to the catalogue. These eight pieces (recorded in 1969 and 1971) track the tentative and always cliche-free flirtations with jazz-fusion that marked Evans's later career - as well as his growing confidence in a looser, collective approach. Half of this programme features Evans's lightly sketched originals, including the brooding Variation On the Misery with its tremulous brass whoops over dark trombone chords, the free-jazz fanfare of Proclamation and the anthemic So Long, a vehicle for the rugged, hollow-toned tenor sax of Billy Harper. …a shade baffled, it's nonetheless a key piece in the Evans jigsaw.

AMG (Scott Yanow) sez:

Gil Evans's first recording as a leader in five years found him leading an orchestra that could be considered a transition between his 1950s groups and his somewhat electric band of the 1970s. Several of these charts, particularly his reworking of George Russell's "Blues in Orbit," are quite memorable, and Evans utilizes his many interesting sidemen, including the distinctive voices of trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, Howard Johnson on tuba and baritone, tenor-saxophonist Billy Harper and guitarist Joe Beck, in unexpected and unpredictable ways. A near-classic release...

Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra - Ten Gallon Shuffle

barabara sounds sez:

I have to say I usually spend more time looking at cowgirls than I do listening to big bands... But I definitely make an exception with Toshiko's adventures with Lew Tabackin. She handled all the arrangements; he was the featured soloist on flute and sax. And they made the kind of joyful sound I still enjoy (like a guilty secret)...

Little known factoid: this album has its own Facebook page.

Dusty sez:

A hokey title and cover, but a great little record — a lesser-known gem from the Toshiko Akioshi big band, recorded in the mid 80s for Japanese release! Toshiko's still working strongly with reedman Lew Tabackin here — and as always, the sound of the reeds really make the record — not only on the bold ensemble passages, but also on the snakey, well-crafted solos that slide out of the fuller arrangements — letting Lew, Frank Wess and Jim Snidero contribute some really great work on the longer tracks. Titles include "Ten Gallon Shuffle", "Fading Beauty", "Blue Dream", and "Happy Hoofer" — and in case you're wondering, that's a young Monday Michiru on the cover!

Personnel:

Toshiko Akiyoshi: arranger, piano; Lew Tabackin: flute, tenor sax; Joe Mosella: trumpet; John Eckert: trumpet; Brian Lynch: trumpet; Chris Albert: trumpet; Hart Smith: trombone; Chris Seiter trombone; Conrad Herwig: trombone; Phil Teele: bass trombone; Frank Wess alto sax, flute, soprano sax; Jim Snidero alto sax, clarinet, flute; Walt Weiskopf: clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax; Ed Xiques baritone sax, bass clarinet, soprano sax; Mike Forminek bass; Scott Robinson drums