Long Yellow Road (Remastered) Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band

• 1 Long Yellow Road 06:29
• 2 The First Night 04:56
• 3 Opus No. Zero 10:10
• 4 Quadrille, Anyone? 06:24
• 5 Children In The Temple Ground 05:30
• 6 Since Perry / Yet Another Tear 08:54
• Total Runtime 42:23

Info for Long Yellow Road (Remastered)

Long Yellow Road is the second album by the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. It was named Best Jazz Album of the year by Stereo Review magazine.[3] In 1976, the album received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band.

A 70s classic from the team of Toshiko Akioshi and Lew Tabackin -- a duo who did for the jazz ensemble mode in their generation what Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland did in the 60s! The material here is wonderfully inventive -- the kind of compositions that Toshiko wouldn't have even written in her smaller combo years -- fleshed out here by a fantastic group that includes Lew Tabackin and Gary Foster on reeds, and Bobby Shew and Don Rader on trumpets -- all in a setting where the voices of the individual members really get a lot of space to shine! Titles include "Since Perry", "Opus No Zero", "Long Yellow Road", "First Night", "Children In The Temple Ground", and "Yet Another Tear".

"Toshiko Akiyoshi's second big-band album (closely following Kogun) is a hard-swinging and consistently exciting set that has strong solos from the likes of trumpeter Don Rader, fluegelhornist Bobby Shew, altoist Gary Foster and Toshiko's husband Lew Tabackin on tenor in addition to the pianist/leader. Akiyoshi draws on her culture successfully on "Children in the Temple Ground" and shows throughout this memorable set (which deserves to be reissued on CD) that she had by this early point already developed into one of the most distinctive big-band arrangers around." (Scott Yanow, AMG)

Toshiko Akiyoshi, piano
Lew Tabackin, tenor saxophone, flute, piccolo
Stu Blumberg, trumpet (on "The First Night", Opus No. Zero" and "Children in the Temple Ground")
John Madrid, trumpet (on "Long Yellow Road")
Lynn Nicholson, trumpet (on "Quadrille Anyone?" and "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear")
Mike Price, trumpet
Don Rader, trumpet
Bobby Shew, trumpet
Charlie Loper, trombone
Bruce Paulson, trombone (except on "Long Yellow Road")
Jim Sawyer, trombone (on "Long Yellow Road")
Phil Teele, bass trombone
Britt Woodman, trombone
Dick Spencer, alto saxophone, flute, clarinet
Gary Foster, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet (except on "Opus No. Zero")
Joe Roccisano, alto saxophone (on "Opus No. Zero")
Tom Peterson, tenor saxophone, alto flute, clarinet
Bill Perkins, baritone saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet
Gene Cherico, bass
Peter Donald, drums (except on "Opus No. Zero" and "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear")
Chuck Flores, drums (on "Opus No. Zero" and "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear")
Tokuko Kaga, vocal (on "Children in the Temple Ground")

Digitally remastered

Toshiko Akiyoshi
Over the course of a seven-decade career, NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of jazz. In 1929, at the time of her birth, Akiyoshi’s Japanese family resided in Manchuria, China where she studied piano from a young age. At the end of World War II in 1945, Akiyoshi’s family endured hardship and moved back to Japan. To get access to a piano, she took her first job as a musician, playing in a dance-hall band. She was discovered by pianist Oscar Peterson while he was on a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan. In 1953, Peterson encouraged producer Norman Granz to record her. While still in Japan, she made her recording debut with Peterson’s rhythm section (Herbie Ellis, Ray Brown and J.C. Heard) which was released in 1954 in both Japan and the U.S. This album led to a full scholarship (including a plane ticket) to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Akiyoshi moved to New York in 1959, playing at Birdland, the Village Gate, the Five Spot, and the Half Note. In 1972 she then moved to Los Angeles with her second husband, saxophonist/flutist Lew Tabackin. The following year, the couple formed the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra Featuring Lew Tabackin. According to Akiyoshi’s biography on Mezzrow’s site, their big band was considered one of the most important in the nation/world during the 1970s and 1980s). In 1976, the band placed first in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll, and Akiyoshi’s album Long Yellow Road was named best jazz album of the year by Stereo Review. In 1982, (comma added) Akiyoshi moved to New York and re-formed her band with New York-based musicians; they debuted to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall as part of the 1983 Kool Jazz Festival.

Akiyoshi has recorded over 60 albums as a leader, three as a solo pianist and over 20 with full jazz orchestra. In 2007, she received the nation’s highest jazz honor (National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master), 14 Grammy Award nominations 16 DownBeat Readers’ Poll Awards, and 13 DownBeat Critics’ Poll Awards. In Japan, Akiyoshi has received numerous awards, and has been honored twice by the Emperor of Japan. She has written an autobiography and is the subject of the documentary, Jazz is My Native Language.

This album contains no booklet.