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Jazz Articles about Akira Sakata
About Akira Sakata
Instrument: Saxophone, alto
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by Mark Corroto
The sophomore effort by Akira Sakata's quartet Bonjintan, which translates into “ordinary person" might actually be better interpreted as “egalitarian." Notice that neither the quartet's name nor the album cover mention the saxophonist's name. Like the initial, self-titled 2017 release on Sakata's Daphnia Records, Dental Kafka focuses on a quartet sound and four equal musicians improvising. Certainly due to the legendary status of the septuagenarian saxophonist, listeners will focus attention on the great man, but this release is ...
read moreAkira Sakata, Johan Berthling, Paal Nilssen-Love: Arashi
by Enrico Bettinello
Furia transgenerazionale e intercontinentale quella condivisa dal sassofonista giapponese Akira Sakata (70 anni a febbraio) con Johan Berthling e Paal Nilssen-Love, basso e batteria che chi conosce un po' le meraviglie del jazz scandinavo ormai ha imparato a considerare “di famiglia." Figura storica del free nipponico, Sakata è musicista che può piacere o meno, ma cui non si può, pena la disonestà intellettuale, negare una adesione totale e onestissima alla pratica dell'improvvisazione, al flusso incontenibile e irrefrenabile di ...
read moreAkira Sakata, Giovanni Di Domenico, John Edwards, Steve Noble: Live at Cafe Oto
by John Eyles
Recorded in concert at London's Cafe Oto in January 2014, this album features the kind of cosmopolitan ensemble in which the venue specialises. It brings together veteran Japanese reedsman Akira Sataka and Spanish pianist Giovanni Di Domenico with London's own John Edwards and Steve Noble. The latter pair have virtually become the house bassist and drummer at Cafe Oto, appearing with many visiting musicians, some of whom play at the venue for that very reason. It is no exaggeration to ...
read moreAkira Sakata & Giovanni Di Domenico: Iruman
by Mark Corroto
Surprisingly, Iruman is saxophonist Akira Sakata's first piano duo recording in his forty-plus year career. The question this disc raises is not why did it take him so long to record in this format, but could another duo performance eclipse this one? Sakata has been flag bearer of the Japanese free jazz movement since the 1970s. Recording first with pianist Yosuke Yamashita, then he was 'discovered' by bassist Bill Laswell and he went on to record with Material, ...
read moreAkira Sakata and the Ghost of Albert Ayler
by Mark Corroto
For so very long, since Albert Ayler's death in 1970, the faithful have been, to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, “hiding 'neath their covers, studying their pain...wasting their summers, praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets."And for the last 40 years, Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata has been a hero, and that's understood. His music has allowed listeners to, indeed, case the promised land.Western audiences may have first noticed him playing in 1986 with Last ...
read moreMiles Davis: Bitches Brew Live
by AAJ Italy Staff
A volte anche un piccolo dettaglio fa la differenza. Il saxofonista Wayne Shorter rimase imbottigliato nel traffico e non raggiunse in tempo Newport per il concerto che il quintetto di Miles Davis doveva tenere il 5 luglio del 1969 nella frizzante località balneare del Rhode Island che ospitava il festival jazz forse più famoso del mondo di quei tempi. Il quintetto diventò un quartetto e la tromba magica di Miles si trovò a scorrazzare liberamente sulle trame fornite da un ...
read moreMiles Davis: Bitches Brew Live
by Doug Collette
Bitches Brew Live documents Miles Davis, as he moved off the cusp of acoustic and electric jazz. The hour-long disc contains two live performances that constitute concert corollaries to the studio albums of their time, with which The Man With The Horn revolutionized modern jazz. The three recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival in 1969 have the streamlined clarity of In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969), in part because saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter missed the gig. There is none ...
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