About

Kosuke Mine (峰厚介) (born Kenji Wakabayashi, February 6, 1944, Tokyo) is a Japanese jazz saxophonist.

Mine played clarinet as a youth before switching to saxophone as a teenager. He began recording as a leader around 1970, and worked during this time with Masabumi Kikuchi, Joe Henderson, and Mal Waldron. He moved to New York City in 1973, but came back to Japan in 1975, and subsequently became a member of the fusion group Native Son. He has also worked with Nobuyoshi Ino, Sadao Watanabe, and Terumasa Hino.

Japanese jazz is one of jazz’s best-kept secrets. But, it would be a a huge loss to miss Mine, the sublime first album of Kosuke Mine Quintet, released in 1970 on the legendary Three Blind Mice label. The record, made of 4 long pieces where Kosuke Mine’s sax (alto and soprano) and Hideo Ichikawa’s fender Rhodes never stop to respond each other is a monument of dense and spiritual jazz. Mine would later switched to tenor sax. His quintet consists of young musicians who are all technically outstanding and shared Mine’s progressive and challenging, but always swinging style. 

This is a brilliant debut album from saxophonist Kosuke Mine, with a sense of tension that seems to burst throughout, and is a monumental work that marked the historic beginning of the prestigious Three Blind Mice label. This original release is completely reproduced as faithfully as possible. Pressed and printed in Japan. 
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Remastering & Cutting: Bernie Grundman
Original reprint liner notes

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Label: Three Blind Mice
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, 180gram
Country: Japan
Released: Feb 28, 2024 / Original Release: Sep 20, 1970
Genre: Jazz
Style: Hard Bop, Modal, Contemporary Jazz
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File under: Japanese Jazz