Warner Japan Jazz Fusion Series

[dougcrates]

http://wmg.jp/special/fusion1000/

First wave will be released June 25th followed by the second wave July 23rd.

[etherbored]

thanks! I've been waiting for 'the section' forever...

[Head Man]

thanks! I've been waiting for 'the section' forever...

Please let us know what it sounds like if you get it it, etherbored. I'd be interested to learn what the mastering's like on this series.....there's nothing worse than "loud" fusion!

[David Ayers]

Thankfully not 1000 titles, which is what I first thought...

[etherbored]

i will - but keep in mind the release date is 90 days out...

[xybert]

I hope that Scofield's Blue Matter is in the next batch... had a now deleted library rip of that album... awesome 'Nintendo jazz'... really liked it. I also have a soft spot for Mike Stern of that era... might pick those up.

This sounds so much like something from a late eighties/early nineties Nintendo game it's ridiculous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSMTw-Fu1qw

[etherbored]

nintendo jazz. i like it. i don't think 'blue matter' sounds anything like it though. but maybe you played hipper games than i did...

[xybert]

I probably overstated it a bit by saying "This sounds so much like something from a late eighties/early nineties Nintendo game it's ridiculous." It's more of a 'reminds me of' rather than 'sounds exactly like'. Anyway, i think it comes down to japanese videogame soundtrack composers being influenced by jazz and jazz fusion of the time.

[JSngry]

[xybert]

I freakin loved Pilotwings back in the day. Soyo Oka composed the soundtrack. I've never looked her up before... interesting to see that she also composed the music for Super Mario Kart, probably my favourite game of all time (and the music was a huge part of it). Her wiki page sites Chick Corea and Lyle Mays among her influences... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyo_Oka

[soulpope]

thanks! I've been waiting for 'the section' forever...

studied the background info - sounds interesting......

Edited March 30, 2014 by soulpope

[jazzbo]

I'm so relieved! I'm not tempted to order any of these.

[king ubu]

I'm so relieved! I'm not tempted to order any of these.

Cheers mate! Just what I thought while browsing that list ...

[JSngry]

Hideaway & Voyeur are stone classics, although I don't know how "fusion" really enters into them, they're post B3-era Soul Jazz, imo, as is much of this type music. Then again, who really cares? Same with Winelight, god, that's definitive. My wife and I fell in love to that record.

Now, Spectrum & Crosswinds, those are fusion, and classics as well.

The Schofield things, those were originally Grammavison, correct?

My thing is, these have mostly all been available for a while anyway, correct?

And speaking of video game music...that's a cult audience right there. My son has been to several "pops orchestra" concerts of both "favorites" and entire scores of some games. I stopped playing a year or two into the SNES, but he's remained a lifelong gamefreak, and I started noticing how the scores of some of the games, especially the RPGs (and especially the Final Fantasy series), would keep getting more and more....interesting.

And then there's this, which has nothing to do with fusion, but just shows you how much interest there is in the idiom, as well as how there's more work with than the old 8-bit blippysqeaks.

[king ubu]

Well yes, the Cobham albums I do have. They're indeed pretty good ...

[jazzbo]

I have those too, don't need or want to rebuy them.

[xybert]

The Schofield things, those were originally Grammavison, correct?

My thing is, these have mostly all been available for a while anyway, correct?

Yes, i believe Gramavision is now owned by Warners.

Not sure about the other albums, i think the Sterns are still easy to come by, however Blue Matter (FWIW, hasn't actually been announced as part of this series) starts at $105.00 new, $29.99 second hand on Amazon US. I'm sure it can be found cheaper elsewhere, but still.

[king ubu]

I heard "Still Warm" in the late 90s and found it totally horrible - couldn't even get so far as to listen to the actual music, the sonics stopped me from doing so - no chance. (And I like Sco good enough, have almost all of his Blue Notes and some of his Verve discs, too.)

[JSngry]

Had no idea Blue Matter was going for that much...wow...

Also had never really known about The Section until this thread...never have been a huge Micheal Brecker fan, but the time/place of this creates a little "historical" interest for me, as it's another link in the James Taylor/Jazz subculture/fanbase-crossover...not unlike the Joni Mitchell/L.A. Express thing, in its own way?

I don't know if I'd want a whole album of this, but if I had heard it then, in 1972, this would have gone in one ear and stayed for a lot longer before coming out the other than it does now.

That's just so...commercially unfeasible these days, to bring in those..."other" elements into what otherwise could have essentially ran parallel to a Tom Scott solo with most listeners not hearing any real difference. But...Rock & Roll Trane/King Curits fusion, that thing was in the air then as a real possibility...now its all/mostly devolved into so much prefab weebleweeble. Oh well.

And I do like those two Sanborn records, I really do. Have no idea how they would sound to a listener of today coming to them for the first time in light of everything that's happened since, but they were fresh and catchy in their time, kinda "groundbreaking" in their own way & place, really, moving beyond "funky jamming" into new areas of composition, texture, production, etc. Very commercially successful, and with good reason, but again, I heard it then and now as post B3-era Soul Jazz.

[xybert]

Just pre-ordered Scofield's Blue Matter and Chick Corea's Light Years from Amazon Japan, both are out July 23rd. Never ordered from Amazon Japan before, hopefully all goes well!