January 6, 2021

Kaoru Abe

19770916@Ayler, Sapporo
DoubtMusic dmh 171

One of the Jimi Hendrix-like legends of Free Jazz, Japanese alto saxophonist Kaoru Abe epitomized the “live fast, die young” mindset. From the time in 1968 when he dropped out of high school and started playing obsessively until he overdosed 10 years later at 29, he was gigging nearly every day at concerts, clubs and kissas (coffee houses). Although associated with other pioneering Nipponese sound- shatterers, Abe’s habits, thorny personality and need for constant musical stimulation usually means he played alone. 19770916@Ayler, Sapporo is a newly discovered typically admirable instance of this recorded in 1977 at a long defunct kissa of the same name. MORE

December 2, 2018

Kaoru Abe/Sabu Toyozumi

Mannyoka
NoBusiness Records NBCD 107

Toyozumi/Countryman

JYA-NE

Manila Free Jazz No #

Almost 40 years separate these two live sessions, but the person providing the cultivated rhythmic connections is the same: Sabu Toyozumi, now 74. One of Japan’s Free Music pioneers along with Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe, Toyozumi has also played with the likes of Derek Bailey and John Russell. Acknowledge today as an authoritative beat-maker in the class of fellow veterans Han Bennink and Milford Graves, he continues on the unconventional exploratory music path, sometimes working with Japanese noise bands and also soloing on the erhu. MORE