Rock Musician Reacts to Senri Kawaguchi Band 'RAGING SPUR' 川口千里バンド

[@louisfifteen]

Besides Senri's out of this world drumming, Miku Yonezawa's sax play is out of this universe. She just blows my mind. Oh, and they are both part of The Jazz Avengers as well. Great review, thanks and Happy New Year.

[@tcntad87]

That sax is just awesome, she needs more appreciation :p

[@hiawatha.g]

Thanks for checking this out. My new favorite Miku, tearing it up.

[@jimmorrisonisamaidiac]

Got to see Senri in a basement club with 50 people in Shinjuku. Two nights before Yokohama Arena Band-Maid show. It was with bass and guitar only. Doesn’t get any better.

[@MaartenT]

I don't know if it was the one you saw, but she did a live set not too long ago with a couple older jazz players (guitar and bass) as a tribute to the band Fragile, the band of her drum teacher and mentor Kozo Suganuma who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. The guitar player was also in Fragile (and helped her out on a lot of her albums). I didn't know the bass player, but he played a fretless bass and was amazing. It's on her channel under the group name "Uragaeru". I saw a streamed show of a set they did and got a live CD for it as well, but I am really curious if it was a one-off thing or if they keep playing like this. It would be really cool if they did, I loved that set. Edit: I just saw on her channel that the recording was from early 2023, so it's certainly not the same set, curious if they are still playing together though.

[@jimmorrisonisamaidiac]

@@MaartenT It was at DX in Shinjuku, with Masatoshi Mizuno on bass, and Shoya Kitagawa on Guitar. They played Handle with Care, NightTrip, Wager, Angel of Wind, Vongole, Takenaka, The New Day, No Control, Winds, and Ginza Blues. No vocals.... November 24.

[@MaartenT]

@@jimmorrisonisamaidiac I don't know those two, but I can only imagine it being fantastic. I have seen a bunch of different streamed concerts with Senri over the years and she typically gets great support musicians. Also Cider Hard & Sweet is my favourite Senri album and Ginza Blues is one of my favourites on that album, I would love to see that one live.

[@jimmorrisonisamaidiac]

@@MaartenT She did a solo to finish off Ginza Blues. It was sweet.

[@GaijinPaul]

My other favorite Miku, who's almost got "the gap" going with that cutesie dress versus that saxitude and playing well into soprano sax range. 米澤美玖 Miku Yonezawa (or Kobato!), Senri and Juna are my reliable clues to finding enjoyable music and bands. Thanks for sharing this one!

[@MaartenT]

I got solo albums by all of the Jazz Avengers (minus the keyboard player as I couldn't find anything) because of curiousity and since I only properly knew Senri and Juna Serita and Miku Yonezawa's albums are probably my favourite next to Senri's. I have also seen a couple of streamed solo sets by her (with a backing band, her manager is a pretty good jazz guitar player and typically plays as well when she does solo performances), she is amazing. I highly recommend her 2019 album "Exotic Gravity", which is one of my favourite jazz albums (granted Senri made me get more into jazz, I don't know that much about it), but her 2023 album "Delight" is great as well. Btw, the keyboard player tried to set up Miku with "The Flight Of The Bumble Bee", which she covered on Exocitc Gravity, and managed to get her to play some of it during the back-and-forth solo's. What I love the most about Senri's live playing is that she is pretty good feeling paterns of players she is used to play with (like Miku here, but I have seen it with Kiyomi Otaka of her Kiyo*Sen project as well) and likes to accentuate those paterns in their solo's. I know this is something plenty of good musicians (especially jazz musicians) can do, but I always love it when she finds a way to accentuate solo's that are clearly pure improvisation.

[@maidsandmuses]

I'm still struggling to get into jazz; somehow the typical walking bass line just doesn't do it for me, and that is so prominent in much of the jazz genre. Both the Jazz Avengers and TOKYO GROOVE JYOSHI still don't really gab me, but MrMOMIJI BAND, Momiji & The Bluestones and Sarah Maeda Band are right up my street. Many good instrumentalists seem to be hopping back and forth between all these bands. I guess blues-rock and soul is more my thing than is jazz. There are many excellent saxophone players I would like to hear more of if they played more blues-rock rather then smooth(~ish) jazz. Sarah Maeda is perhaps my favourite, she has played in blues-rock combo's and I do like her choice of material in general, and her style of playing in particular. Has Miku Yonezawa done any blues-rock or more rock/funk-leaning jazz you can recommend?

[@MaartenT]

@@maidsandmuses I would say Miku Yonezawa is the most "pure jazz" of the 4 of them, I would certainly try to find something on yt first. She has some guitar in her tracks though with her manager being a jazz guitarist. The 3 others, especially Ami Nakazono and WaKaNa play more smooth jazz on their solo albums. Smooth jazz isn't always my favourite either, especially the more ballad style tracks. Some of the tracks on Miku Yonezawa's albums are pretty progressive and somewhat chaotic sounding to me, but I probably like those the most. But I personally like walking basslines, even from when I was really young. I remember some jazz was on the carradio when I was really young and me "playing" the basslines on the seatbelt in the back of the car. As far as things to you could check out, 坐音 ZAON (Senri is involved as is Ami Nakazono) plays Jazz Fusion with mixed with traditional Japanese instruments. I don't remember the type of bassplaying, but I think the mix of both styles of instruments works really well and it makes it somewhat different. Some of Senri's solo stuff and Kiyo*Sen is also more jazz fusion with plenty of rock elements, but I don't remember the type of basslines most of their songs use. The only other thing I can think of are a couple of jazz guitarists, Chizuru Segawa of The Jazz Avengers and Fumika Asari who played with Juna Serita on one of Juna's sessions, but even those are way more jazz leaning than rock. Also if you haven't heard Muses yet (one of the project Juna Serita is in), they use more more rock and metal influences because their guitarist Rie a.k.a. Suzaku is a rock/metal guitarist on her solo work. Their basslines are more funk inspired because of Juna Serita. For more rock inspired funk you can check out a band like BimBamBoom if you haven't already, but that's probably cheating since they don't have that many jazz influences. I will check the ones you mentioned though, I am still relatively new to jazz and like experimenting with more things. I have had some exposure outside of Japan like Snarky Puppy, Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvær, Jazzanova, Cinematic Orchestra and my nephew plays in a jazz trio called The Jonas Cambien Trio (but it's really difficult to get into experimental jazz, I enjoy some of it but not for every day). I have also heard some of the more known Miles Davis albums, but it has been a while since I did and I only know "Kind Of Blue" well because it was on often when we were drinking/smoking at a friends place (and when I got really sick once). I might have to check out more Jazz-Rock though, it certainly does sound interesting. Edit: Also, while Soul seems less my thing, I do enjoy some of Nao Yoshioka's tracks, especially the more funky ones. And there is no denying she has a really good voice. You might want to check her out as well if you haven't already. Edit 2: Funnily enough, Momiji Okubo seems to be the sister of Shoka Okubo who has 2 blues driven projects with Juna Serita, Shoka Okubo Blues Project and Addone. At least, that's what I gather from them being in a project called Blues Sisters and them both having the same surname. I like Shoka Okubo and my dad always played plenty of blues over the years which made me like it as well. It makes me want to check out Momiji Okubo's music even more.

[@peterb7923]

Definitely agree that that if someone was in a band with Senri - their music is gonna be enjoyable - Kiyo*Sen, Zaon, and everyone in JA. Jazz Avengers' keyboard player Marie Takeda played on an album with singer chihiRo-Decoy before becoming part of JA. I haven't been able to find a copy to buy.. She's also performed quite often with Ami Nakazono as"Le Grande Retour" - you may have seen some of their performances on YT. I agree that Miku's albums are all great, altho I haven't been able to find her "Blue Shadow" album - on which she plays jazz standards. Do you have that one? IMO, Miku's playing on ballads like "I Remember Clifford" is as incrediblly beautiful as it is ferocious on cuts like "Raging Spur"

[@MaartenT]

@@peterb7923 I don't have Miku's Blue Shadow album as I only got a couple of them that didn't say "ballad" in the description (I am generally not a huge fan of ballads in most genres), but I see it is on CD Japan via a proxy most likely from the store of her label (trilogic). It still seems to be available there. I own Landscape (her second one, which seems removed from the store), Another World, Exotic Gravity (my favourite, but it seems sold out on the labels store) and Delight (her latest one). I might pick up some more with my next order. I requested a couple of proxy items (different genres) on CD Japan anyway.

[@peterb7923]

@@MaartenT Thanx! - Blue Shadow was sold out on CD Japan, but I found it on "CDs Vinyl Japan Store." It certainly wasn't cheap, but I have never regretted paying for good music

[@MaartenT]

If you want to see a young Senri with an other amazing jazz sax player, you can check out "『Lover Come Back To Me』 大西由希子×川口千里(Senri Kawaguchi)×岩永真奈×長崎祥子". It was recorded over 10 years ago (so Senri was probably 15/16) and it features Yuco Miller on sax who also played on the Kari Band album (the Kami band's jazz album). I believe it was for a DVD for Yucco Miller. I absolutely love that performance, the bass solo isn't great, but all the other solo's are and the bassist does a really good job during the rest of the track. I am pretty sure all of them were pretty young, probably in their early 20's or younger, so they were still honing their craft. Yucco Miller's solo albums are not necessarily my favourite because she plays more smooth jazz nowadays, but this performance (and with the Kari Band) she is absolutely killing it with sax insanity.

[@andrewweatherhead4127]

Check out the Abyss at claps. Miku and Senri are amazing as is the band.😊

[@stevegee218]

And Keys and Sax start to trade off "Flight of the bumble bee lines". Keep in mind that the whole band is using charts (ipads) on the songs for main riff and transitions, but the solo spots are improvised.

[@MaartenT]

The keyboard player most likely knew Miku has a "cover" of The Flight Of The Bumble Bee on her 2019 album "Exotic Gravity". It was a cool setup though even if it seemed to have failed the first try. And yes, the fact that most of jazz solo's are improvised and how some of the better jazz musicians still are really good at reacting to each others parts is what I probably find the most impressive. It's a genre that has plenty of stuff that I can't get into, but I have also found a lot of jazz that I do really like as well (like some of Miku Yonezawa's solo albums and a lot of Senri's projects). But seeing good jazz musicians play live music just blows my mind in most cases.

[@gerardvinet8448]

Interesting choice of progressive Jazz , very refined & laid back .

[@spotteddogmemphis]

We are not worthy, we are not worthy. 🙇

[@homegnome2429]

Sorry Wave, didn’t mean to make you feel bad 🤣 but don’t put yourself down so much. Remember - Hana Sano said you’re a really good player! You can take that to the bank 🤩

[@chelollo]

Nice to see that there are female drummers living across the ocean. Do you think this South Korean woman has talent for playing the drums? " Dream theater As I Am drum cover by Ami Kim (212) "