Inspiration & Power 14 Free Jazz Festival 1

Take that title seriously! An immensely powerful and inspiring blast of freedom from the summer of 1973 in Tokyo, "Inspiration & Power" documents a festival at which many of the heaviest of the era's/nation's heavy free jazz/improvisation monsters gathered to exhale some fire over two action-packed nights. Some of this music is relatively straight-ahead and definitely of its era, though it's as excellent as that sort of thing gets. A couple of tracks in particular, though, make this album required listening for pretty much anybody who has functioning ears and a soul.

There's music by New Herd Orchestra, a quintet led by trumpet player Itaru Oki, Now Music Ensemble, a duo of drummer Masahiko Togashi (who, amazingly, lost use of his legs after an accident but continued to develop his own style of playing) and pianist Masahiko Satoh (who has two albums on Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50 list), Satoh again with Garandoh (a trio with bass & drums), and Yohsuke Yamashita Trio. The real standouts among an album full of standouts are a solo bass improvisation by the master, Motoharu Yoshizawa, and a scorching horror of remorseless post-Ayler/pre-Borbetomagus fury by Masayuki Takayangi's New Direction for the Arts that simply has to be heard to be believed. See if you aren't winded just by listening to their track (and if you like it, check out "La Grima" next). By the end of the decade, Takayanagi would record ear-bleeding duos with sax outcast Kaoru Abe, pull his guitar apart and set it on the table, and play a Tudor-esque jumble of circuits and cassette tapes. For his innovation, he was roundly ostracized by the Japanese jazz establishment, but not before his later work could galvanize the next generation.

"Inspiration & Power" first appeared as a 2xLP on Trio Records (Japan) in 1973, then experienced a few reissues on both vinyl and CD. This is the most recent 2xCD version, in a full-color gatefold sleeve with lots of liner notes in a language that neither Mr. Inside nor I can read.

disc 1
disc 2