Four Seasons of Morita Village is the fifth album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 recorded by the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra featuring Lew Tabackin. It was released in 1996 and won the Swing Journal Silver Disk Award for that year. The central "Four Seasons of Morita Village Suite" was commissioned by Morita

Morita, Aomori

was a village located in Nishitsugaru District in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan.Morita Village was located in the central portion of Tsugaru Peninsula. The area was part of Hirosaki Domain during the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, Morita Village was created on April 1, 1889...

 Village in Aomori Prefecture

Aomori Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

, Japan. This recording is not to be confused with the 1990 (Nippon Crown) Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio recording, Four Seasons.

Track listing

All songs composed and arranged by Toshiko Akiyoshi

Toshiko Akiyoshi

is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...

:

1. "Dance of the Gremlins" – 7:48
2. "Repose" – 7:21
3. "Pollination" – 12:16
4. "Norito" – 6:40
5. "Harvest Shuffle" – 7:59
6. "Retro Zone" – 10:39
7. "China Remembered" – 5:44

"Repose", "Pollination", "Norito" and "Harvest Shuffle" make up the four part "Four Seasons of Morita Village Suite"

Personnel

• Toshiko Akiyoshi
  Toshiko Akiyoshi
  is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
  
   – piano
• Lew Tabackin
  Lew Tabackin
  Lew Tabackin is a jazz flautist and a tenor saxophonist. He is married to Toshiko Akiyoshi, who is a jazz pianist and a composer/arranger.-Biography:...
  
   – tenor saxophone, flute
• Walt Weiskopf – tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet
• Dave Pietro
  Dave Pietro
  Dave Pietro is a jazz saxophonist who plays alto saxophone. He started playing at age 11 and was first recorded with his school's band by Clark Terry. He received his bachelor's in music from the University of North Texas where he was a member of the world renowned One O'Clock Lab Band...
  
   – alto saxophone, flute, clarinet
• Jim Snidero
  Jim Snidero
  Jim Snidero is an American jazz saxophonist.Snidero studied at the University of North Texas before moving to New York City in 1981. After touring with Jack McDuff, he joined Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra in the early 1980s in New York, working in the group for twenty years...
  
   – alto saxophone, flute
• Scott Robinson
  Scott Robinson (jazz musician)
  Scott Robinson is an American jazz musician. Robinson is best known for his work with various styles of saxophone, but has also performed with the clarinet, flute, and sarrusophone, along with other, more obscure instruments....
  
   – baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
• Mike Ponella – trumpet
• John Eckert – trumpet
• Andy Gravish – trumpet
• Joe Magnarelli – trumpet
• Scott Whitfield – trombone
• Pat Hallaran – trombone
• Joe Helleny – trombone
• Tim Newman – bass trombone
• Doug Weiss – bass
• Terry Clarke – drums

Other

• Kenichi Nagamine – tsugaru shamisen
  Tsugaru-jamisen
  Tsugaru-Shamisen is a genre of shamisen music originating in Aomori prefecture in the northernmost area of the Japanese island of Honshū. It is today performed throughout Japan, though associations with the Tsugaru area of Aomori remain strong....