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Masayuki Takayanagi & New Direction For The Arts

Masayuki Takayanagi

Takayanagi Masayuki – guitar
Motoharu Yoshizara - bass
Kenji Mori – reeds
Joe Mizuki – drums
(later replaced by Hiroshi Yamazaki – drums)

The guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi was one of those extreme mavericks who combined virtuoso playing and extreme grasp of musical theory with radically atonal freerock amp destruction, inspiring and pissing off contemporaries throughout the entirety of his forty year career. Indeed, he was notably ostracised by the jazz community in the late-60s for having described them as ‘a bunch of losers’ in the press. When he discovered free jazz in 1969, however, Takayanagi's music moved into truly stellar territory. Although his work is discussed briefly in Chapter 11 of Japrocksampler, what Takayanagi's career needs is a full-on in-depth overview and re-excavation by someone of the calibre of David Keenan.

Julian Cope

Discography:

JAZZ MESSAGE FROM TOKYO (King, 1957)
JAZZ SCENE (Full House, 1957)
MODERN JAZZ CONCERT AT VIDEO HALL, TOKYO (King, 1958)
ETENRAKU/CITRUS SEASON: 1963 GINPARIS SESSION (Three Blind Mice, 1963)
WE NOW CREATE (with Masahuko Togashi Quartet) (Victor, 1969)
INDEPENDENCE (Teichiku, 1969)
GUITAR WORKSHOP (Teichiku, 1970)
KAITAITEKI KOHAN (Sound Creators, 1970)
MASS PROJECTION - A JAZZY PROFILE OF JOJO (Victor, 1970)
SWING ALLSTARS (Philips, 1971)
GEN-YA CONCERT NIPPON GENYASAI (with Zuno Keisatsu, Blues Creation, Dew & Lost Aaraaff) (URC, 1971)
FREE FORM SUITE - NEW DIRECTION FOR THE ARTS (Three Blind Mice, 1972)
INSPIRATION & POWER 14 - FREE JAZZ FESTIVAL 1 (with Masahiko Satoh, Toshiyuki Miyama & New Herd Orchestra, and Motoharu Yoshizawa) (Trio Records, 1973)
JAZZ GUITAR FORMS (RCA, 1973)
ECLIPSE (Iskra, 1975)
AXIS ANOTHER REVOLVABLE THING 1 (Offbeat, 1975)
AXIS ANOTHER REVOLVABLE THING 2 (Offbeat, 1975)
COOLJOJO (Three Blind Mice, 1979)
LIVE AT MOERS FESTIVAL - NEW DIRECTION UNIT (Three Blind Mice, 1980)
LONELY WOMAN (Trio, 1982)
WALTZ STEP / UP AND DOWN (Aketa's Disk, 1985)
ACTION DIRECT (Kojima Recordings, 1985)
EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE (with John Zorn) (Moby's, 1986)
INANIMATE NATURE (Jinya Disc, 1990)
CALL IN QUESTION (PSF, 1991)

JAZZ MESSAGE FROM TOKYO
JAZZ SCENE
ETENRAKU/CITRUS SEASON: 1963 GINPARIS SESSION
WE NOW CREATE (with Masahuko Togashi Quartet)
INDEPENDENCE
KAITAITEKI KOHAN
MASS PROJECTION - A JAZZY PROFILE OF JOJO
GEN-YA CONCERT NIPPON GENYASAI (with Zuno Keisatsu, Blues Creation, Dew & Lost Aaraaff)
FREE FORM SUITE - NEW DIRECTION FOR THE ARTS
INSPIRATION & POWER 14 - FREE JAZZ FESTIVAL 1 (with Masahiko Satoh, Toshiyuki Miyama & New Herd Orchestra, and Motoharu Yoshizawa)
JAZZ GUITAR FORMS
ECLIPSE
AXIS ANOTHER REVOLVABLE THING 1
AXIS ANOTHER REVOLVABLE THING 2
COOLJOJO
LIVE AT MOERS FESTIVAL - NEW DIRECTION UNIT
LONELY WOMAN
ACTION DIRECT
EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE (with John Zorn)
INANIMATE NATURE
CALL IN QUESTION

Images

Artist Information

WALTZ STEP / UP AND DOWN

WALTZ STEP / UP AND DOWN is not the title of a Takayanagi album. Rather these are the titles of two tracks on Masahiko Togashi's Improvisation Jazz Orchestra "Follow the dream" LP.
The album which is probably meant is "850113" by Takayanagi's Angry Waves trio. This was the only release of his that appeared on the Aketa's Disk label and it was indeed released in 1985.

Posted by choan, Sep 12, 2007

Discography

The discography strangely omits a few of Takayanagi's freeform albums in favour of straighter material. Amongst the more important are:
1. Gradually Projection, Mass Projection (both live duos with Kaoru Abe from 1970, DIW)
2. Complete La Grima (the full set from the 1971 Genyasai festival, Doubtmusic)
3. April is the cruellest month (1975 set originally scheduled for release on ESP Disk, recently reissued by Jinya)

Posted by choan, Sep 12, 2007

Link

English discography

Posted by choan, Sep 12, 2007

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