Tokyo-based whack jazz guitarist, turntablist, composer, arranger and knob twiddler Otomo Yoshihide has been called the John Zorn of Japan for his love of combining experimental sounds with avant-garde jazz. And to my ears, there's not much there to dispute the comparison, for better or for worse. His fascination with sine waves can be mind expanding or head splitting depending on your disposition toward high pitched electronic sounds, but with Otomo, you can almost always expect to be surprised.
For someone who built his reputation on noise rock and minimalist experimentalism, Yoshihide surprised again by assembling a New Jazz Quintet in 2001 that combined progressive jazz standards with Otomo's bent for combining anything with unconventional noises. Four years later, the Quintet was replaced by a larger New Jazz
Orchestra and by the time 2005 was over, Otomo had released two NJO records.
The second of these was a project that took some sack to undertake: a song by song recreation of Eric Dolphy's sacred Out To Lunch. You might recall Out To Lunch being discussed and revered in this space as one of the greatest "Swan Songs" albums in jazz.
The "Orchestra" name tells you that Yoshihide tackled Dolphy's material with a much larger configuration of musicians than the quintet employed by Dolphy himself. But as Andrey Henkin of All About Jazz accurately points out, the NJO "is not a big band, but a loose amalgamation of distinct voices." Henkin goes on to explain that this is an important characteristic, as the highly arranged nature of a big band couldn't do Dolphy's unencumbered compositions any justice. Added to the original instrumentation of bass clarinet, vibes, trumpet bass and drums are piano, sho (a rare Japanese reed instrument), baritone sax, electronic devices and Otomo's electric guitar. The lineup is a mix of Japanese and European veteran jazz musicians.
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Article comments
1 - alessandro nicolo
Man, you know your stuff. Are you a musician yourself? By the way, I responded to you on my blog. Interested in knowing more.
2 - Mark Saleski
nice review pico. the Zorn name really does fit. when i listened to "Gazzelloni" it reminded me of early Naked City and also that crazy Ornette record that he did.
3 - Pico
Now that you mention it, Mark, this track does sound a lot like those short, frantic pieces that made up Zorn's Ornette tribute Spy vs. Spy. Astute observation.
-P
4 - Pico
alessandro, that's you? Lol, I never made the connection that you were "The Commentator"!
My apologies for failing to follow up on my autism post in your blog, I had forgotten all about it. I'll go respond now. But I'll say here that your advocacy of this much misunderstood disorder can only benefit those afflicted with this and their parents. Thanks for caring that much.
And thanks for your kind words about my writings on a much more trivial matter. I don't play any instruments (I used to play guitar but family, etc, kind of got in the way). I just listen a whole hell of a lot.
-P
5 - downtownmusic
Pico,
Please remove the photo of Otomo from flickr and your blogs. If you want to use my photos, please ask for permission.
Peter Gannushkin