Nippon Columbia has decided to simultaneously release “Sharps & Flats in Montreux 1982,” a collection of previously unreleased recordings by Japanese big band leader Hara Nobuo and Sharps & Flats, on CD and digitally.
Hara Nobuo and Sharps & Flats, who led the Japanese big band scene for many years, appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, one of the world’s three major jazz festivals, in 1982. Although the live performance was a great success for leader Hara Nobuo, the recordings remained missing for about 40 years and remained unreleased. After Hara’s death, the recordings were discovered by chance two years ago, and are now being released at this long-awaited time.
Nippon Columbia is home to many of Sharp’s classic recordings, including 1967’s “Sharps and Flats of Newport,” and this time around, the lineup is typical of Sharp, mixing standards and Japanese melodies, and is filled with Hara’s thoughts, who said, “We should not continue to imitate or follow America, but should play jazz that was born in Japan.”
Please enjoy the sophisticated sound of Sharp from the 1980s and the realism and exhilaration that can only be experienced at a live performance.
Nobuo Hara and Sharps & Flats will resume full-scale activities in May 2024, starting with an appearance at Takatsuki Jazz Street. On November 2nd, they plan to hold “Nobuo Hara and Sharps & Flats Concert Live 2024 Re:BLUE FLAME” at the Aimasho Theater in Yurakucho.
[Product Overview]
“Sharps & Flats in Montreux 1982” *CD, digital distribution, simultaneous release
Release date: Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Product code: COCB-54373
Price: ¥3,000 (tax included) (¥2,727 (tax excluded))
Planning and distribution: Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.
Cooperation: HARA Music Japan Co., Ltd.
[Track List]
1. Three, Two, One, Zero
2. Space Shuttle Special
3. Humpty Dumpty
4. Umegaeda Hand-Washing Bowl
5. Awa Dance
6. Tokaido
7. Soran Bushi
8. Take The “A” Train
[Performance]
Nobuo Hara, Yosuke Karaki (ts)
Gen Maekawa, Koji Suzuki (as)
Nobuyuki Morikawa (bs)
Tadao Taniyama, Shunji Sato, Hiroaki Inaba, Junichiro Murakami (tb)
Shuzo Morikawa, Teruyuki Fukushima, Nobuo Koyama, Mitsukuni Kowata (tp)
Yoshio Nakamura(ds)
Junichi Kobayashi(b)
Kazuhiko Kawakami(g)
Takeshi Kamachi(p)
Guest: Yuri Tashiro (org)
[Product website]
https://columbia.jp/artist-info/haranobuo/
