仮 (Kari) BAND - 侍 (Samurai) Groove
Added 2025-04-27 15:00:12 +0000 UTCI wasn't expecting to have my ears graced with a mixture of progressive rock and jazz.
This fusion was like your favorite cocktail being made the right way. Like my scotch on the rocks with just the right amount of water.
This one felt...gooooooooood!
Comments
There certainly is some heavier Jazz Fusion in Japan, like the band Fragile which has amazing players including Senri Kawaguchi's (Jazz Avengers among others) late teacher/mentor (Kozo Suganuma) under who she learned since she was 8 years old until he sadly passed away in 2021. It's probably not as heavy as this all the time, but it gets there in some tracks. Senri did a show with the guitarist of Fragile (Koichi Yabori) a couple of years ago (with a project called Uragaeru) where they covered all Fragile songs that evening and recorded it live. You can find one of the tracks on her channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx-PG7www7Y) The guitarist actually helped her out plenty of times both live and with her records over the years. She also just started a new project with the bassist of Fragile (Masatoshi Mizuno), which is also Jazz Fusion. The project is called Nankai Trio and just released an album. They also have 2 full songs on their channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-g5-DX9h9M and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0a3HdFyexE). It's not as heavy as this, but it's great Jazz Fusion. I also saw a streamed live show of them before the album released and it was great. As far as the Kari Band goes, I own the releases they have but probably don't listen to them enough. I like them a lot though, it's just that while I did stumble into Japanese jazz and jazz fusion a little before getting into the rock/metal scene, it's not something I constantly listen to. Everytime I see a streamed liveset it's amazing though. I know the one of the CDs of the Kari Band I own has some collabs on it including Saxophone played by Yucco Miller who I do own a couple of albums by. While not everything by hear is necessarily for me, her performance on that Kari Band album is great. She also performed with Senri Kawaguchi quite a while ago (I think both were still teenagers) in a performance that I rewatch regularly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eIeMPhXhSQ), it's a cover of "Lover Come Back To Me" and while I think all 4 members in that performance (I think for a DVD of Yucco Miller) are teenagers, or maybe in their early 20's (I know Senri was around 16 at the time), it's a fantastic cover. (edit: I am just going to play that video again).
MrMette
2025-05-31 00:34:04 +0000 UTCThere are so many music fans from the West who are making pilgrimage to Japan to find some much of what we are missing from there.
William Hallisey
2025-04-27 20:20:06 +0000 UTC
