kaoru abe / sabu toyozumi “overhang party” double compact disc set

• improvisation 4 - august 5 (32:53)
  
• improvisation 2 - august 5 (12:11)
  
• improvisation 3 - august 5 (11:35)
  
  
• improvisation 1 - august 5 (28:10)
  
• improvisation 1 - august 13 (24:31)

alm press release...

kaoru abe / sabu toyozumi duo overhang party 2cd [kojima] disappointing to think that abe inevitably followed the pattern of dwindling passion which has since the beginning of time characterised the progress of and kind of human effort or endeavour, creative or otherwise. those looking for the burning early intensity here will find that the flame has all but gone out. while overhang party's two alto & alto clarinet tracks are worthwhile listening by any reasonable standard and comparable to abe's playing ca. late 1975, they lack the freshness and singlemindedness he then displayed, and are the work of a man seemingly struggling with his muse. fortunately his partner keeps things always moving forwards with a constant banter, and the two maintain an irregular, stuttering dialogue throughout the album's 90-minute duration. taken from two dates on august 5 and 13, 1978, overhang party (i have no clues of the significance of the odd title, or how it may relate, if at all, to the contemporary japanese psych band of the same name) pairs abe with drummer and longstanding improv stalwart sabu toyozumi, a longtime presence on the japanese free scene, who played in the yoshizawa trio and probably many others settings beside; he can more recently be heard in a trio with haino and barre phillips on the two strings will do it cd on psf. abe died on september 9 (though his very last recordings can be found on the last date cd on diw), and when overhang party came out - after his death, obviously - it bore the subtitle "a memorial to kaoru abe". aside from the two tracks mentioned above, there are three more duos showcasing abe on a range of instruments - guitar, piano and marimba, with toyozumi on drums throughout - which it's certainly interesting to hear him play, but which give the album as a whole a bitsy and incoherent feel. on guitar (acoustic), abe sounds like an almost flamenco-influenced bailey, but with regular lapses into dead-end blunder that certainly won't have given derek the shakes. he's not a lot better on piano, and the marimba track is not easy listening. compounding all this is abe's apparent unwillingnes to musically acknowledge his partner's presence for lengthy periods, by either trailing off altogether for up to a minute at a time, or exclusively concerning himself with some popularly undetectable internal improv agenda. toyozumi does his best and admirably well to keep the conversation alive, but is not helped by abe's recalcitrance. 80% of the way through, right when you think it's all crashing down to shit, abe switches back to alto for a blazing finale that's well worth hanging around for. a typically perverse finale to an existence marked by loose ends, frayings and inconsistencies. something of a sour note to end on, but whatever its taste, it comes not even close to detracting from what must be one of the more incredible lives in the history of free jazz. one can only hope that the psf, tokuma and kojima titles will prompt a broader reinvestigation of the life and music of kaoru abe, and the context in which his music was played and his life lived, a context which is one of the most enthrallingly creative music 'scenes' of the post-war world, easily one a par with comparable and infinitely more revered scenes in new york, chicago, berlin, and london, but in comparison completely submerged and largely undocumented by an oblivious media. i rank abe with jimmy lyons, ornette coleman, and any other worshipped alto master you can name, and these discs rescue and preserve the lost and bewildering heritage of abe, one of the most singular, brilliant and unconstrained spitits of that or any other decade. take a good listen and try to tell me you disagree. - nick cain

exias-j / sabu toyozumi “son’s scapegoat” compact disc

• broadening distribution: concerto
  
• shifting
  
• seven
  
• on bishopsgate
  
• improvisations 050403

masayuki takayanagi “independence - tread on sure ground” compact disc

• the galactic system
  
• sick ... sick ... sickness ... my aunt
  
• study no.3 up and down
  
• herdsman’s pipe of spain
  
• deepnight ........ swamp
  
• pirahna
  
• bonus track (from “guitar workshop” february 1970)