ENGLISH

Since the 80’s, there has been a lot of wrinting on the power of copying made in Japan. At first it was a laughing matter, then it was a bit of a freak-out in the globalized economy. Flip Flip. But that was without taking into account the respect for the heritage and history of the Japanese. Jazz has always been happy about it. Proof again with ‘At the Room 427’ by Koichi Matsukaze Trio. For the label, let’s arrange something like power-postbop-modalo-free. That will keep two or three of them busy. For the others, the sound of the trio, joined by Ryojiro Furusawa, remains an example of fleshy pleasure. Check out the sound of the double bass that opens ‘Acoustic Chicken’. Monstrous, deep and enchanting. Improv, Coltrane and Dolphy as figureheads but above all a verve already declined in quite a few releases of the J Jazz Masterclass series from BBE. This shot comes directly from 1976. At a time when the world was floating on disco and jazz-funk, the sun was rising on the Japanese avant-garde and the antics of saxophonist Koichi Yamazaki. Free ones and unleashed, too. Everything is perfect in this record. Right up to the energetic cover of ‘Lover Man’, cuddled between other places and other times by Billie Holiday. The lover with the silhouette of Archie Shepp, broken and blinkin’. Otherwise, the Room 427, it is the place where Matsukaze recorded this raw and powerful burn. Without copy, without equal.