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Shūdan Sokai LP  Live At 八王子 Alone – Aguirre

First time reissue of JP free jazz rarity, pre-Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai group. Old-style Gatefold LP with rare photographs & liner notes by Alan Cummings. Limited edition of 500.

In early 1976, Kazutoki Umezu and pianist Yoriyuki Harada — recently returned from New York’s loft jazz environment, where they had played with musicians such as David Murray and William Parker — formed Shūdan Sokai with Mori and drummer Takashi Kikuchi. The name, meaning “mass evacuation,” pointed to their self-chosen exile in Hachiōji. With Alone as their home base, the quartet developed a music characterized by an infectious sense of enjoyment and a willingness to integrate free jazz with elements of song structure. Harada switched between piano and bass; the group experimented with rap-like vocal pieces, jabbering nursery rhymes over bass rhythm.

30 €