OSAMU KITAJIMA — Beyond The Circle (1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

In the early ‘90s, the sound of ‘Osamu’ reached its musical peak with his masterful albums Mandala (1991) and Behind the Light (1992). A four-year hiatus followed, but in 1996, Osamu Kitajima returned with an album that charted a brand new direction and expanded his musical sensibilities as an artist.
Beyond the Circle is a fusion album of East (organic Japanese instruments with traditional Geisha-esque voice-work) and West (modern synthesized layerings and rhythms). The result is no doubt fascinating, in particular the album’s fresh arrangements that seem to suggest unlimited possibilities for East-West fusion compositions in the genre of new-age and electronic music. Put yourself in 1996, and this album would begin to feel radical.
In fact, it almost straddles into dance and trance music territory, without the cookie-cutter artifice. Each track has its own unique properties, yet musically, the album has a consistent new sound. Kitajima would try to replicate that ‘sound’ again in the album Two Bridges Crossing (2008), in itself an interesting hybrid album, but executed less successfully.
Highlights:
‘Beyond the Circle’ – The title track is also my favourite. Starts off with percussion, shamisen, and a groovy electronic rhythm, before a synth flute melody comes into play. Throughout the piece, we are treated to superb arrangements of electronic layers and koto. Traditional Japanese voice-work also punctuates the music playfully. No matter how long this is on repeat, it doesn’t get tiring.
‘Mind Thieves’ – Strong rhythms keep this track lively. The melody is performed on koto, while some of the most invigorating voice-work of the album comes in the chorus of this track.
‘The Bush Warbler’ – A deep-synth instrument and voice-work begin the track. There’s no distinctive melody here, but there’s a range of instruments used, including shakuhachi, electric guitar, and a myriad of electronic layerings. At about 2:40, there’s a bridging section with beautiful vocalization and taiko drumming, possibly the most memorable moment of the album. allmusic
Tracklist :
1.    Beyond The Circle    5:15
2.    Mind Thieves    4:43
3.    Darkness Desired    5:14
4.    Blue Fire    5:23
5.    Evening Privilege    5:11
6.    The Bush Warbler    6:04
7.    Fading Sky    3:48
8.    Bonito Moxie    5:01
9.    Goldfish Lingo    4:43
10.    Distant Episode    5:02
Credits :
Guitar – Nels Cline
Kakegoe – Sei Kitajima
Producer, Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Percussion, Koto, Biwa, Composed By, Arranged By, Mixed By, Engineer – Osamu Kitajima
Producer, Synthesizer, Piano, Bass Guitar, Percussion, Composed By, Arranged By, Mixed By – Christopher Mancinelli
Shinobue, Shakuhachi – Masakazu Yoshizawa

TONY SCOTT — Music For Zen Meditation And Other Joys (1964-1984) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

After stints at Juilliard and in the Army during the '40s, clarinetist Tony Scott rose to prominence in the '50s as a respected jazz soloist. His resumé at the time included work with Sarah Vaughan, Ben Webster, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans, Billie Holiday, and Claude Thornhill, among many others. In addition to these sidemen dates, Scott also cut several solo albums. His subtle phrasing eventually found a perfect niche in the smattering of meditation and yoga dates he cut in the mid-'60s for Verve. Fueled by his burgeoning interest in Far Eastern culture, Scott hooked up with two Japanese master instrumentalists for this classic 1964 date. And while Scott, koto player Shinichi Yuize, and shakuhachi player Hozan Yamamoto produce nine cuts that sound classically Japanese and really nothing like jazz, they do actually improvise pretty much throughout the entire set. If you'd like to levitate to music with some unexpected twists, then Scott's Music for Zen Meditation is for you. Stephen Cook
Tracklist :
 1. Is Not All One?
 Tom Scott / Hozan Yamamoto / Shinichi Yuize
2. The Murmuring Of The Mountain Stream
 Tom Scott / Shinichi Yuize
3. A Quivering Leaf, Ask The Winds
  Hozan Yamamoto  
4. After The Snow, The Fragrance
 Tom Scott / Shinichi Yuize
5. To Drift Like Clouds
 Hozan Yamamoto / Shinichi Yuize
6. Ze-zen (Meditation)
 Tom Scott / Hozan Yamamoto
7. Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya Sutra (Sutra Chant)
 Tom Scott / Shinichi Yuize
8. San-zen (Moment Of Truth)
 Tom Scott / Shinichi Yuize
9. Satori (Enlightenment)
 Tom Scott / Shinichi Yuize
 Line-up / Musicians
Shinichi Yuize - Koto
 Hozan Tamamoto - Shakuhachi.
Tony Scott - Clarinete

SOMEI SATOH : Sun Moon (Akikazu Nakamura · Shin Miyashita) (1994) APE (image+.cue) lossless

With Sun/Moon, Somei Satoh speaks with the ancient, distinct voice of Buddha, with enough melodramatic romanticism to stir the emotions of even the most Western ears. Perhaps less cinematic than his previous album, Toward the Night, but no less passionate in tone, with gorgeous, rich dialogue between shakuhachi and koto that circulates between whispers, cries, gasps, and deep contemplation. The opening piece, "Kougetsu," is the sound of a rock garden minding its own business, a dragonfly dreaming restlessly amongst the bamboo. "Sanyou" follows in much the same way, in an expression of (as the composer puts it) "the purity of the early morning air." Shin Miyashita plucks his 17-string koto with patience, reverence, and in perfect symbiosis with Akikazu Nakamura, a stoic virtuoso on the shakuhachi. Nakamura was the first to use circular breathing with the instrument, and to great effect on the dynamic closing solo of "Kaze No Kyoku," where he both prowls within barely audible harmonics and at once opens the floodgates to the distressful chills of night. It is often Satoh's generous use of silence that gives this album such meditative weight -- a sense of patiently unfolding enlightenment. Consequently, song structure seems less prominent than the rich, extended phrasings that rise, fall, and rise again over the course of 44 minutes. The album closes as it began, as Nakamura once again breathes a pure, almost glass-like vapor of tone into the silence around it. Sun/Moon is a small treasure from New Albion Records worth finding. Keir Langley

Tracklist :
1    Kougetsu (Moon)    15:16
2    Sanyo (Sun)    18:11
3    Kaze No Kyoku (Wind)    10:25

Akikazu Nakamura : Shakuhachi
Shin Miyashita : Koto  

DOROTHY ASHBY — The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby (1970-2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Issued on Cadet in 1970, The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby is really a left-field offering for the jazz harpist. But being a jazz harpist was -- and remains -- an outside thing in the tradition. Her previous offerings on Prestige were pure, hard bop jazz with serious session players soloing all over them. She made recordings for Atlantic and Jazzland before landing at Chess in 1968 with Afro-Harping which began her partnership with arranger Richard Evans. Ashby became content as an iconoclast and was seemingly moving forward toward the deep well of spiritual jazz in the aftermath of John Coltrane's death and the recordings of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. On this set for Cadet, she again teams with Evans who wears the hats of producer, arranger, and conductor of a string section and the record goes in a somewhat different direction. Whereas Afro-Harping hit on a direction for Ashby and cemented her relationship with Evans, Rubaiyat realizes that partnership in total. With a band that included a host of percussion instruments -- Stu Katz played vibes and kalimba, and Fred Katz played a second kalimba, Cash McCall was enlisted as guitarist, Cliff Davis played alto saxophone, and Lenny Druss played flute, oboe, bass flute, and piccolo. There is also a bass player and a drummer but they are not credited. For her part, Ashby played her harp, but she also brought the Japanese koto into the mix as well as her voice. Rubaiyat is no ordinary jazz vocal album. It is exotic, mysterious, laid-back, and full of gentle grooves and soul. The opening cut, "Myself When Young," with its glissando harp and koto, is in an Eastern mode, and immediately lays out Ashby's vocal as this beautiful throaty, clear instrument hovering around the low end of the mix. Midway through it kicks into soul-jazz groove without losing the Eastern mode and goes, however gently, into an insistent funky soul-jazz groove. There is no kitsch value in this music, it's serious, poetic, and utterly ingenious musically. It sounds like nothing else out there. And it only gets better from here. The poem that commences "For Some We Loved" gives way to a percussion and koto workout that comes right from the modal blues. The oboe playing is reminiscent of Yusef's Eastern Sounds but with more driving, hypnotic rhythm. "Wax and Wane" begins with kalimbas playing counterpoint rhythms and Ashby singing in Japanese scale signature, but soon hand percussion, strings, and a flute enter to make the thing groove and glide, ethereal, light, beautiful. "Drink" is a pure soul-jazz ballad with harp fills, a funky bassline, and shimmering flutes above a trap kit. The piano solo -- played by Evans, we can assume -- on "Wine," is a killer move bringing back the hard bop and giving way to a smoking vibes solo by Katz. It's as if each track, from "Joyful Grass and Grape," "Shadow Shapes," and "Heaven and Hell," enter from the world of exotica, from someplace so far outside jazz and western popular musics, and by virtue of Ashby's vocal and harp, are brought back inside, echoing the blues and jazz -- check out the koto solo on this cut, by way of the symbiotic communication between Evans and the musicians. You can literally hear that Ashby trusts Evans to deliver. Ashby transforms "Shadow Shapes" and "Heaven and Hell" from near show tunes in her contralto into swinging, shuffling jazz numbers. The lithe beauty on display in her voice and the in-the-pocket backup of the rhythm section is flawless and infectious. The set ends on its greatest cut, "The Moving Finger." Introduced by what seems like an Eastern Buddhist chant, it quickly slips into harp, koto, guitars, drums, and bass bump. Evans adds strings for drama playing repeating two-note vamps before Katz and his vibes take the thing into outer space. The slippery guitar groove and alto solo that cut right into the flesh of the blues turn it into a solid late-night groover with plenty, plenty soul. The fuzz guitar solo playing counterpoint with the kalimba rhythms is mindblowing, sending the record off to some different place in the listener's head. And this is a head record. Time and space are suspended and new dimensions open up for anyone willing to take this killer little set on and let it spill its magic into the mind canal through the ears. Depending on how much of a jazz purist you are will give you a side to debate the place of this set in Ashby's catalogue. For those who remain open, this may be her greatest moment on record. by Thom Jurek

-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :

1. Myself When Young - 5:16

2. For Some We Loved - 4:02

3. Wax and Wine - 4:25

4. Drink - 2:30

5. Wine - 3:56

6. Dust - 2:51

7. Joyful Grass and Grape - 3:38

8. Shadow Shapes - 3:32

9. Heaven and Hell - 3:10

10. The Moving Finger - 5:39

Credits :
Dorothy Ashby - Harp, Koto, Vocals
Lenny Druss - Flute, Oboe, Piccolo Flute (tracks 1-5 & 10)
Cliff Davis - Alto Saxophone (track 10)
Stu Katz - Vibraphone (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 & 8-10)
Cash McCall - Guitar (track 10)
Fred Katz - Kalimba (tracks 2, 3 & 10)
Ed Green - Violin (track 2)
Richard Evans - Arranged and Conducted
Inspired by the words of Omar Khayyam

THE JAPANESE ALBUM - Dinner Classics CBS Masterworks / V.A. [1986]

The Japanese Album, part of CBS Records' Dinner Classics series, is a collection of traditional Japanese melodies performed on flute, violin, and cello. Featured soloists include flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, violinist Isaac Stern, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. While much of the material here is traditional or attributed anonymously, there are selections from Japanese composers Michio Miyagi, Konoye, and Miyazaki. The Japanese Album also includes relevant recipes from Martha Stewart. by Johnny Loftus

Tracklist 
1 Sakura, Sakura 3:45
2 Chin-Chin-Chidori 4:39
Flute – Masami Nakagawa
Percussion – Sumire Yoshiwara
Written-By – Hidemaro Konoe
3 Yamanakabushi 4:31
4 Tôryanse (Children's Song) 2:28
5 Chidori No Kyoku 6:35
Arranged By, Conductor – Masaaki Hayakawa
Shakuhachi – Hozan Yamamoto
Violin – Isaac Stern
Written-By – Yoshizawa Kengyo
6 Defune 4:57
Bass – Hiroaki Naka
Percussion – Sumire Yoshiwara
Written-By – Haseo Sugiyama
7 Oharabushi 2:56
8 Shimabara No Komoriuta 3:06
Written-By – Kazuaki Miyazaki
9 Imayoh 3:01
Arranged By, Conductor – Masaaki Hayakawa
Shakuhachi – Hozan Yamamoto
Violin – Isaac Stern
10 Imayô 6:36
11 Chugoko-Chiho-No-Komoriuta 4:07
Written-By – Kohsaku Yamada
12 Jôgashima No Ame 6:11
Written-By – Takashi Yamada
13 Haru No Umi 6:18
Written-By – Michio Mamiya
14 Sakura, Sakura 4:17

Credits
Arranged By, Conductor – Michio Mamiya (tracks: 2, 6, 11, 14)
Cello – Yo-Yo Ma (tracks: 2, 6, 11, 14)
Flute – Jean-Pierre Rampal (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13)
Harpsichord – Patricia Zander (tracks: 6, 11, 14)
Koto [Bass Koto] – Yasuko Nakashima (tracks: 1, 4, 7, 8, 12)
Koto [First Koto] – Shinichi Yuize (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13)
Koto [Second Koto] – Utae Uno (tracks: 1, 4, 7, 8, 12)
Shakuhachi – Hozan Yamamoto
Violin – Isaac Stern
Flute – Masami Nakagawa
Percussion – Sumire Yoshiwara

THE JAPANESE ALBUM

Dinner Classics: CBS Masterworks

V.A. [1986] CBR320 / scan

O Púbis da Rosa

RILEY LEE - Satori [Music for Yoga and Meditation] 1983

 Riley Lee is one of the Western world's leading experts and artists on the shakuhachi, an ancient Japanese flute. In the new millennium, there are several artists performing on ritualistic instruments like the Tibetan singing bowls and bells, the didgeridoo, cedar flutes, pan pipes, and the shakuhachi. In 1981, when he created Satori, this was a relatively new sound to the west. Only a handful of artists were creating music in this style. Gabriel Lee -- no relation -- accompanies Riley on the koto, a 13-string Japanese zither. This is remarkable acoustic ambience. The shakuhachi has a distinct texture and the atmospheres are unique, although there is a vague similarity to the texture of a Native American flute. Gabriel is an acknowledged expert as well and the instruments accompany each other seamlessly. This CD will appeal to fans of Life in Balance, Stan Richardson, R. Carlos Nakai, and Blasdell & Uehara.  by Jim Brenholts

1 Satori 15:48

2 Kazue 5:37

3 Nightingale 9:09

4 Spring Rain 9:01

5 Temple Steps 6:44

6 Wanderer 5:23

7 Searching 4:50

 8 Dreams 2:55

CBR320/scan

Koto – Gabriel Lee

Shakuhachi – Riley Lee

O Púbis da Rosa