# CD review: Mal Waldron and Terumasa Hino – Reminiscent Suite – 1973 – 2024: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2024/02/05/cd-review-mal-waldron-and-terumasa-hino-reminiscent-suite-1973-2024-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2024-02-05T00:04:25+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**American pianist Mal Waldron’s music is often associated with solo piano albums
or acoustic trios, but it’s less known that his music was of a different nature 
during the early 70s. After his relocation to Europe in 1965, he regularly recorded
on local labels (most significant – for German Enja and several albums for ECM),
but later, during the early 70s, he became an almost cult like figure on the Japanese
jazz scene as well. Many of his best albums were recorded in Japan, or are collaborations
with leading Japanese musicians.**

The obscure “Reminicent Suite” is a great example. This two-piece album was recorded
in Japan during Mal’s regular Japanese tour, and finds him working with the leading
Japanese trumpeter and his group, the Terumasa Hino Quintet, with Mal Waldron taking
the piano chair of their regular pianist Mikio Masuda. Terumasa’s Quintet was one
of the leading Japanese advanced post-bop collectives of that time, including such
sound members as bass legend Isao Suzuki and drummer Motohiko Hino. Improved with
Mal’s piano (during early 70s he played much freer than he did in later decades,
being a regular co-leader on Steve Lacy albums among others) perfectly communicating
the band’s sound as a small orchestra. “Reminicent Suite” is a Waldron composition
with strong tunes, well organized and it recalls Mingus’ best works. Terumasa’s 
trumpet is fast, strong and almost steals the show, but Mal’s piano fits perfectly
here, it sounds like he was a Quintet member for months or years. Each musician 
has enough space for improvisation, a great example of really collective work.

Side B’s “Black Forest” is a shorter and more percussive composition with stronger
Japanese music influence. Repetitive rhythmic structure is used as a basic line 
for soloists changing each other. Less orchestrated, but melodic, and of the same
high intensity level, it perfectly completes side A’s “Suite..”.

Never released outside of Japan, this album is too obscure to be better known and
more popular. It’s a real pity – this work is a true Mal Waldron and Japanese jazz
masterpiece.

Originally released in 1973, Reminiscent Suite is a collaboration between American
pianist Mal Waldron and Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino, working with a band of
top Japanese musicians from the period, performing two extended tracks, both taking
a side each. One of several Japan-only albums recorded and released by Waldron over
30 years, this album has never been commercially available outside of Japan and 
is released as part of the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series on 200g vinyl in 
a gatefold suite with new photos by Tadayuki Naito, liner notes and essays.** **

BBE Music is thrilled to present J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988,
a remarkable large-format book covering some of the deepest, rarest, and most innovative
jazz music released anywhere in the post-war era. Compiled by Tony Higgins and Mike
Peden, co-curators of BBE Music’s acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series, the book 
also features a foreword by Japanese jazz icon, Terumasa Hino.

This is the first time a book of this type has been has been published outside of
Japan and the first anywhere of this size and scale. It is a unique collection of
over 500 albums of free and modern jazz recorded and released in Japan during a 
period of radical transformation and constant reinvention. An era that saw Japan
return from the ravages of World War Two to become a global economic power and emerge
as both a technological leader and an international cultural force.

Through a unique gallery of albums, J Jazz charts the development of jazz in Japan
from the first stirrings of the modern jazz scene in the mid to late 1950s and on
through the hard bop and modal jazz of the 1960s. It steers the reader into the 
radical directions of the 1970s when free jazz, fusion, post-bop, and jazz-funk 
opened up a growing number of Japanese jazz artists to a new global audience before
consolidating in the mid to late 1980s with a musical scene that laid the path for
the contemporary jazz generation to follow.

Over 500 full-colour sleeves from many of the leading names in Japanese jazz sit
alongside rare and private pressings that tell a story of constant change and musical
exploration. J Jazz includes profiles of several leading record labels such as East
Wind, Frasco, King Records, and Nippon Columbia as well as critical independents
such as Three Blind Mice, ALM, and Aketa’s Disk. J Jazz includes interviews with
celebrated jazz photographer Tadayuki Naito, and pianist Tohru Aizawa, bandleader
on the totemic spiritual jazz album, Tachibana Vol 1, as well as free-jazz record
collector and jazz musician Mats Gustafsson.

The book also features a chapter on albums by non-Japanese artists that only received
a Japanese release, with collectible, rare, and obscure releases by figures such
as Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, and Art Blakey. J Jazz 
includes Japanese jazz charts from some of the world’s leading jazz DJs including
Gilles Peterson, Toshio Matsuura, Paul Murphy, and Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino. Among
the specialist content is a feature on obi strips by record dealer and Japanese 
jazz expert, Yusuke Ogawa, plus a special article on Japanese Blue Note albums.

Across its 300-plus pages, J Jazz includes a detailed introduction contextualising
the music, tracing the story of Japan’s fascination with jazz back before the war.
It also features biographical information on many of the key artists involved in
shaping the post- war Japanese jazz scene including Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi,
Masabumi Kikuchi, Masahiko Togashi, Terumasa Hino, Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi,
Masayuki Takayanagi, Takeo Moriyama, Isao Suzuki, and many more.

![](https://i0.wp.com/assets.jazziz.com/2024/01/MAL-1024x595.jpg?resize=640%2C372&
ssl=1)

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