About

Reissued on 180g black vinyl
Remastered by Isao Kikuchi and cut by Katsutoshi Kitamura at Mixers Lab, Warner Music Mastering (JPN)

Recorded on February 20, 1976 at AOI Studio, Tokyo
Obi has the Japanese title as "黒いオルフェ"
2nd press

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This album features a powerful trio: Isao Suzuki, one of Japan's leading bassists, pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, and drummer Donald Bailey. It's part of the classic album series from Three Blind Mice, a leading Japanese jazz label that started in 1970. This series features paper sleeves that faithfully reproduce the original LP jackets, and is a high-quality hybrid disc newly remastered from the label's original analog master tapes, a specification long awaited by jazz fans. — (via Label)

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Surprise appearance of Donald (“Duck”) Bailey on drums. Long-standing percussion anchor of the Jimmy Smith Trio (1956-64) and some The Three Sounds Blue-notes, Bailey relocated to Japan for the second half of the ’70s, placing him with bass virtuoso Suzuki on this 1976 session. Characteristically understated but deftly supportive, in contrast to more extrovert Japanese jazz drummers like Motohiko Hino (with the pyrotechnics of Elvin Jones), and master stylist Takeo Moriyama.

Matching unfamiliar Japanese names with more familiar US counterparts, pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto has been described as the ghost of Red Garland, keeping company with Erroll Garner and Wynton Kelly, perhaps a little more funky.

My selection Manhã de Carnaval, Morning of the Carnival, was principal theme in the 1959 Portuguese-language film Orfeu Negro, Black Orpheus, by French director Marcel Camus, written by Brazilian composer Luiz Bonfá. The song helped establish America’s  Bossa Nova “craze” in the early ’60s, and has been covered by many jazz instrumentalists – Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Cal Tjader, Paul Desmond, and the great Uncle Tom Cobley Allstars.

Suzuki serves up his distinctive style of pizzicato plucked cello similarly to his earlier album Blow Up (TBM 15),  taking the melodic lead combined with syncopating cross-rhythms, weaving around Yamamoto’s funky  electric piano. Deceptively easy-listening, the trio maintains the bossa pulse, and there is “proper” bass lurking to deliver that rich lower register characteristic of Three Blind Mice albums. — (via London Jazz Collector)

Vinyl Tracklist    
A1 Black Orpheus
A2 Angel Eyes
B1 Who can I turn to
B2 In a Sentimental Mood
B3 Blues

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Label: Three Blind Mice
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue
Reissued: 2026 / Originally Released: 1976
Genre: Jazz
Style: Modal, Soul-Jazz

File under: Three Blind Mice
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