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JJ 12/64: Dave Brubeck Quartet – Jazz Impressions Of Japan

Sixty years ago Peter Tanner felt short-changed by Brubeck's pretentious, jazz-free exoticism, finding the cover painting and the Japanese poetry the best part of the production. First published in Jazz Journal December 1964

This particular album contains Dave Brubeck’s impressions of a trip to Japan in the spring of 1964, and the music is just about as pointless and pretentious as any­thing he has ever recorded. Giving his compositions titles such as Tokyo Traffic and Osaka Blues, with a few typically far-out Eastern-sounding chords thrown in for good measure, hardly seems to justify an album of which the beautifully reproduced cover painting and the Japa­nese poetry quotes on the sleeve are its chief assets. The music is played with taste, but much of it bears little relation to jazz, it seldom swings and often meanders off into noodling nothingness. Don’t be fooled by this pseudo highbrow approach.

Discography
Tokyo Traffic; Rising Sun; Toki’s Theme; Fujiyama (18 min) – Zen Is When; The City Is Crying; Osaka Blues; Koto Song (18 min)
Dave Brubeck (p): Paul Desmond (alt); Eugene Wright (bs); Joe Morello (d). June 1964.
(CBS BPG 62431 12inLP 33s. 1d.)

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