Sakura Sakura (Remastered) Hideo Shiraki Quintet + 3 Koto Girls

• 1 Sakura, Sakura 08:10
• 2 Yosakoi Bushi 04:05
• 3 Yamanaka Bushi 06:49
• 4 Matsuri No Genzo 06:13
• 5 Alone, Alone and Alone 06:18
• 6 Suwa 06:14
• Total Runtime 37:49

Info for Sakura Sakura (Remastered)

Adulated in his native Japan, drummer Hideo Shiraki led the most famous Japanese jazz group of the early 60’s. His combining jazz and traditional Japanese music brought him an invitation to the 1965 Berlin Jazz Festival and a record date. Three women playing Koto, the traditional Japanese stringed instrument, accompanied the quintet. The results: world music that works. Known in the West as ‘the Cherry Blossom Song’, the traditional Sakura Sakura finds Shiraki employing mallets, fingers, brushes, and sticks in combination with the Kyoto players as jazz and tradition blend. Yosakoi Bushi means ‘better come at night to make love’. There’s a feel of bluesy early Coltrane in the relaxed swing and soprano solo. Yamanaka Bushi is a song from the Yamanaka Onsen, or hot springs. The quintet bathes in the song’s heat, as a young Terumasa Hino displays why he’s a world-renowned trumpeter. Matsuri No Genzo conjures the images of a rural temple feast. After a haunting Koto refrain, everyone has a taste, and Shiraki’s play makes sure there are no leftovers. Hino takes the melody and solos exquisitely on his ballad Alone, Alone And Alone. Suwa is another Hino piece. The Koto takes on an almost Avant-garde role here, with an electronic-sounding accompaniment to the muted trumpet melody. An amazing coalescence of the serene traditional music of Japan and the youthful vitality of jazz.

Keiko Nosaka, Koto
Kinuko Shurane, Koto
Sachiko Miyamoto, Koto Bass
Yuzuru Sera, piano
Takeru Muraoka, tenor saxophone, flute
Terumasa Hino, trumpet
Hachiro Kurita, bass
Hideo Shiraki, drums

Recorded November 1, 1965 in Berlin
Engineered by Guenther Topel
Produced by Joachim E. Berendt

Digitally remastered

Hideo Shiraki
(born 1 January 1933 in Tokyo; died 31 August 1972) was a Japanese jazz drummer and bandleader, best known for his work in the 1950s and 1960s. Famed earlier on for hard bop, he later explored world music and became a pioneer of fusing traditional music forms with jazz structuring.

Shiraki emerged in the new Japanese jazz scene of the 1950s that grew out of the influence of the US occupying forces. He studied percussion at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and, during this period, played with Masashi Nagao's Blue Coats.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, his quintet was popular in Japan and was associated with the "funky boom" craze for hard bop. Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto, Terumasa Hino and Yuzuru Sera all passed through his quintet.

Notable albums include 1961's In Fiesta (Teichiku Japan), which included a version of Benny Golson's "Five Spot After Dark". Performers on the album included Hidehiko Matsumoto on tenor and flute and Yuzuru Sera on piano.

1965's Sakura Sakura united the quintet (including Terumasa Hino on trumpet) with three female koto players as Shiraki moved into a world jazz approach. An invited November 1965 performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival, organised by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, saw the quintet work with a koto quartet and was feted for mixing jazz with traditional Japanese music.

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