About

A historical masterpiece recorded on 23 May 1969 at the Tokyo Studio Centre by the "Togashi Masahiko Quartet", consisting of Masahiko Togashi (drums), Motoki Takagi (saxophone), Masayuki Takayanagi (guitar) and Motoharu Yoshizawa (bass). 

On May 23, 1969 the independent record company Victor1 recorded an album, a classic Japanese free jazz record, “We Now Create”, with the quartet with Togashi Masahiko as leader and with the presence of Masayuki Takayanagi, Mototeru Takagi and Motoharu Yoshizawa. The record shared the honors of the Japan Jazz Prizes with “Palladium” by the Sato Masahiko Trio. The era of free jazz had begun. “We Now Create” is a masterpiece created by four people who intensely explore the true nature of their instruments.

Takayanagi’s use of feedback guitar, Takagi’s lyricism of tenor sax and cornpipe flute, Yoshizawa’s flawless bass sound, and of course Togashi’s intricate and powerful drumming were the declaration of the arrival of a new era. Many Japanese jazz fans first understood the creativity of free jazz by listening to this record. In his book “Free Jazz in Japan”, Soejima Teruto writes that he ran into Yoshizawa at the Pit Inn the day they finished recording and that he laughed, “We just made a great record. The only thing they told me was not to play any tremolo, but… I did. I still think it was okay.” By incorporating elegant scraps of feedback to this album, in its own way so rigorous, austere and impressionistic, Takayanagi was able to give some effective indication of how far his thinking had progressed. - Neu Guitars