1970 Mototeru Takagi/Masabumi Kikuchi “2 To 10 / Saxophone Adventure” on Philips

Basically, the JP Free Jazz Rosetta Stone. This live jazz workshop is really a pair of group improvisations, each taking up an entire side of wax. The first outing is the MIGHTY Mototeru Takagi (on bass clarinet!) and Sabu “Message To Chicago” Toyozumi on drums, for a duo avant freeblowing blowout of minimalist clarity and power. They are then joined by an insane influx of top-end sidemen, including Kunimitsu Inaba and Yasuo Arakawa on bass, George Otsuka on drums, the MIGHTY Masahiko Sato on piano, the MIGHTY Takeru Muraoka on tenor, and Hisahide Kato on soprano, all conducted by the MIGHTY Masabumi Kikuchi! Whew. It’s a killer’s row full of force and restraint, exploration and ambition, silence and crashing symbolism.

​The subtitle of Side A is “Deep Sea”, and that pretty much describes it better than an entire novel, which is helpful since the subtitle of Side B is “Plot”. There is no plot, and there are all plots. It’s the summation of the experience of existence as exemplified by the fact that the experience of existence is beyond description, notation, or harmony. Top action, jazz royalty, pure adventure. Oh yeh