Sadao Watanabe: Tsumagoi
[purchase]
Before you get all up in my grill, let me just point out that this is not J-Rock. It's pretty straight-up jazz by a world-renowned woodwind player who just happens to be Japanese. I used to listen to it when it came out in 1980, which far predates my J-Rock obsession. In fact, I used to play along to this tune on my really crappy saxophone, even though here, Watanabe-san features the flute (he usually plays alto sax too).
So, Columbia Records ended up with this guy on their label, and they wisely (or maybe just luckily), threw a bunch of other terrific jazz fusion artists into the mix and recorded their live Budokan sets. We've got Dave Grusin on keyboards, Eric Gale on guitar, and Richard Tee, Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, Ralph MacDonald, Jeff Mironov and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Whew!
