About

Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Fumio Itabashi's sought-after album Watarase hailed as one of the great Japanese jazz albums and featuring Itabashi on piano playing an inspired mix of standards and originals. Recorded in 1981 for Denon and released the following year, the album has since reached cult status among jazz connoisseurs, thanks to Itabashi's inventive piano playing and to its cult title track, a superb soulful and spiritual composition. Newly remastered by Nippon Columbia using their ORT mastering technology, the album reissue features original artwork including a 2 page insert with a new introduction by Paul Bowler.

Watarase showcases the piano virtuoso in fine form. With a style that exhibits a constant push and pull between the heavily rhythmic and sweetly melodic, this solo piano outing is consistently driven by his willingness to jump into whatever idea pops into his head with just enough confidence to pull it off. Itabashi is playful and at ease as he slowly warms into a tight groove around “Someday My Prince Will Come.” With a deft touch, he sets chiming melodies off like chain reactions, each one sparkling brightly before a lightning fast downward run of notes appear to offset the calm. After a teasing intro of pounding trills, Itabashi loosely slides into the main melody in an almost sly fashion — his subtly casual approach belying a keen ear for wrapping compact segments of melody into bursts of energetic and quick fills that can come on with jaw-dropping speed. Itabashi tackles another jazz standard, Vernon Duke’s “I Can’t Get Started,” with a similar gusto as he cooly approaches the song’s laidback melody. — (via Wewantsounds, Bandcamp)

↓
Label: Wewantsounds
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue
Country: Europe
Released: Apr 2024 / Original Release: 1982
Genre: Jazz
Style: Post Bop, Modal
⦿

File under: Japanese Jazz