Joh Yamada [Bluestone]
A disc i bought in 2003, not one of my greatest Jazz purchases, but it's a disc which has slowly built up a reputation for me, i've come to appreciate it over the years, there's nothing really revolutionary here, pretty standard stuff in an old school sort of way, a Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean disciple, gives you some idea of what he sounds like, featured quite heavily in my Blog [21 January 2010 & 3rd January 2013].
Joh Yamada is Japanese, he's now 46, he recorded this disc back in 1997, doesn't seem to be very active in the recording studio, i think he's only got one other album, the photography for this issue is excellent [by John Abbott], a close up on the front cover, i like the way the main lettering is vertical, and kudos to the record company for producing such a nice back inlay too, nice sharp photos, love the blue theme.
On this listen i really loved tracks 2 & 5-6, here's a short synopsis of them all,
2 Bluestone [9:52] - A gentle ticking / rocking in the rhythm section, bright playing of a simple tune by Yamada, certainly the Pianist Chestnut is quite clever, creating ripples of interest, sounds a lot like Cedar Walton, Yamada switches from playing straight to swinging and back, he isn't one of these players that have to produce a thousand notes per minute, he lets the music tunes do the talking, Chestnut has a solo in the middle [4:34-6:41], and in some ways seems to try to get a little too clever, but he's good too, the gentle ticking of Clarence Penn's drums is a nice addition.
5 Never Let Me Go [6:47] - A really touching tune, came to know it from Keith Jarrett, Yamada plays the main theme gently and breathy [0:23+], and then with more passion [0:56+], really affecting, it's a sax and piano duet to begin with, takes ages for the rhythm section to come in [1:32+], in Chestnut's solo [2:24-4:25] he again tries to outclever Yamada, though towards the end there's some beautiful treble key work, in Yamada's solo [4:25+], he really flows more than usual.
6 The Sacred Eyes [5:19] - Bassist Rodney Whittaker gets his chance to shine in starting this one off, a slow lumbering idea at first, but i love the way he swings things up [0:46], and with one smash of the drums [0:54] Yamada throws himself into this one, Chestnut again has a really clever solo [2:59-4:16], going off in all directions, a real barnstormer.
Here's a sample of all the tracks on the AllMusic website.
Joh Yamada is Japanese, he's now 46, he recorded this disc back in 1997, doesn't seem to be very active in the recording studio, i think he's only got one other album, the photography for this issue is excellent [by John Abbott], a close up on the front cover, i like the way the main lettering is vertical, and kudos to the record company for producing such a nice back inlay too, nice sharp photos, love the blue theme.
On this listen i really loved tracks 2 & 5-6, here's a short synopsis of them all,
2 Bluestone [9:52] - A gentle ticking / rocking in the rhythm section, bright playing of a simple tune by Yamada, certainly the Pianist Chestnut is quite clever, creating ripples of interest, sounds a lot like Cedar Walton, Yamada switches from playing straight to swinging and back, he isn't one of these players that have to produce a thousand notes per minute, he lets the music tunes do the talking, Chestnut has a solo in the middle [4:34-6:41], and in some ways seems to try to get a little too clever, but he's good too, the gentle ticking of Clarence Penn's drums is a nice addition.
5 Never Let Me Go [6:47] - A really touching tune, came to know it from Keith Jarrett, Yamada plays the main theme gently and breathy [0:23+], and then with more passion [0:56+], really affecting, it's a sax and piano duet to begin with, takes ages for the rhythm section to come in [1:32+], in Chestnut's solo [2:24-4:25] he again tries to outclever Yamada, though towards the end there's some beautiful treble key work, in Yamada's solo [4:25+], he really flows more than usual.
6 The Sacred Eyes [5:19] - Bassist Rodney Whittaker gets his chance to shine in starting this one off, a slow lumbering idea at first, but i love the way he swings things up [0:46], and with one smash of the drums [0:54] Yamada throws himself into this one, Chestnut again has a really clever solo [2:59-4:16], going off in all directions, a real barnstormer.
Here's a sample of all the tracks on the AllMusic website.
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