Mosaic Select: Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band is a 3 CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 compilation album released by Mosaic Records

Mosaic Records

Mosaic Records is an American specialist jazz record label, founded in 1983 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie to issue coherent limited edition box sets of jazz recordings by individual musicians, which had fallen out-of-print...

 in October 2008 and is composed of the first five studio albums recorded by the LA

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

-based Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band

Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band

The Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band was a 16 piece jazz big band created by pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi and tenor saxophone / flutist Lew Tabackin in Los Angeles in 1973. In 1982 the principals moved from Los Angeles to New York city and re-formed the group with new members under the name,...

. It is volume 33 of the "Mosaic Select" series and includes the complete contents of the previously released RCA

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

 / Victor

Victor Entertainment

is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...

 recordings, Kogun

Kogun

Kogun is the first album recorded by the Los Angeles-based Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. It was released in Japan by Victor in 1974 and received the Swing Journal Silver Disk prize for that year...

(1974), Long Yellow Road

Long Yellow Road, Toshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band

Long Yellow Road is the second recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. The album was nominated for a 1976 Grammy award in the category, "Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band" and was named "Jazz album of the year" by Stereo Review magazine.All tracks from this album are also...

(1975), Tales of a Courtesan (Oirantan)

Tales of a Courtesan (Oirantan)

Tales of a Courtesan is the third recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. It is also sometimes referred to by the title HANA KAI TAN in rōmaji listings of the Japanese album title....

(1976), Insights (1976), and March of the Tadpoles

March of the Tadpoles

March of the Tadpoles was the fifth studio recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. The album was released in Japan in 1977 by Japan Victor Records and much later in the USA on the Ascent Records label...

(1977).

Track listing

All songs orchestrated 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...

. All songs composed by Akiyoshi except "Yet Another Tear" (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:...

).

Disc One:

1. "Elegy" – 9:10
2. "Memory" – 10:23
3. "Kogun" – 6:06
4. "American Ballad" – 5:46
5. "Henpecked Old Man" – 9:11
6. "Long Yellow Road" – 6:23
7. "The First Night" – 4:50
8. "Opus No. Zero" – 10:04
9. "Quadrille, Anyone?" – 6:18
10. "Children in the Temple Ground" – 5:26

Disc Two

1. "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear" – 8:52
2. "Road Time Shuffle" – 6:25
3. "Tales of a Courtesan (Oirantan)" – 9:09
4. "Strive for Jive" – 7:46
5. "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More" – 6:06
6. "Interlude" – 4:13
7. "Village" – 11:04
8. "Studio J" – 6:00
9. "Transience" – 4:33
10. "Sumi-E" – 7:50

Disc Three:

1. "Minamata" (suite) – 21:37
   1. "Peaceful Village"
   2. "Prosperity & Consequence"
   3. "Epilogue"
2. "March of the Tadpoles" – 6:54
3. "Mobile" – 5:20
4. "Deracinated Flower" – 8:14
5. "Yellow is Mellow" – 8:53
6. "Notorious Tourist from the East" – 7:35

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, piccolo
• Tom Peterson – tenor saxophone, alto flute, clarinet
• Dick Spencer – alto saxophone, flute, clarinet
• Gary Foster – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet (except "Opus No. Zero")
• Bill Perkins
  Bill Perkins (saxophonist)
  Bill Perkins was a cool jazz saxophonist and flutist popular on the West Coast jazz scene, known primarily as a tenor saxophonist. Born in San Francisco, California, Perkins started out performing in the big bands of Woody Herman and Jerry Wald. He also worked for the Stan Kenton orchestra, which...
  
   – baritone saxophone, alto flute, bass clarinet
• Joe Roccisano – alto saxophone ("Opus No. Zero")

• Bobby Shew
  Bobby Shew
  -Biography:After leaving college in 1960, Shew was drafted into the U.S. Army and played trumpet with the NORAD band in Colorado Springs and on tour. After leaving the Army, Shew joined Tommy Dorsey's band and then played with the Woody Herman and then the Buddy Rich Big Bands in the mid-to-late...
  
   – trumpet
• Mike Price
  Mike Price (jazz trumpeter)
  Mike Price is a jazz trumpeter and composer from the Chicago area. In the late 1960s Price toured and recorded with major big bands including those of Stan Kenton and Buddy Rich...
  
   – trumpet
• Steven Huffsteter – trumpet ("Road Time Shuffle", "Tales of a Courtesan (Oirantan)", "Strive for Jive", "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More", "Interlude", "Village", "Studio J", "Transience", "Sumi-E", "Minamata", "March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")
• Richard Cooper – trumpet ("Road Time Shuffle", "Tales of a Courtesan (Oirantan)", "Strive for Jive", "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More", "Interlude", "Village", "Studio J", "Transience", "Sumi-E", "March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")
• Don Rader – trumpet ("Elegy", "Memory", "Kogun", "American Ballad", "Henpecked Old Man", "Long Yellow Road", "The First Night", "Opus Number Zero", "Quadrille Anyone?", "Children in the Temple Ground", "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")
• Stu Blumberg – trumpet ("The First Night", "Opus Number Zero", "Children in the Temple Ground")
• John Madrid
  John Madrid
  John Madrid was a jazz and pop trumpet player, active mainly from the 1960s to the 1980s. He is noted for his remarkable accuracy and power in the upper register but he was also capable of playing tasteful jazz solos in the middle register.Madrid grew up in an east Los Angeles suburb, Montebello,...
  
   – trumpet ("Elegy", "Memory", "Kogun", "American Ballad", "Henpecked Old Man" and "Long Yellow Road")
• Lynn Nicholson – trumpet ("Quadrille Anyone?", "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")
• Jerry Hey
  Jerry Hey
  Jerry Hey is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Thriller and the distinctive flugelhorn solo on Dan Fogelberg's hit Longer....
  
   – trumpet ("Minamata")

• Phil Teele – bass trombone
• Charlie Loper – trombone
• Britt Woodman
  Britt Woodman
  Britt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
  
   – trombone (except "March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")
• Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone ("Road Time Shuffle", "Tales of a Courtesan", "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More", "Interlude", "Studio J", "Transience", "Sumi-E", "Minamata", "March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")
• Jim Sawyer – trombone ("Elegy", "Memory", "Kogun", "American Ballad", "Henpecked Old Man", "Long Yellow Road", "Strive for Jive" and "Village")
• Bruce Paulson – trombone ("The First Night", "Opus Number Zero", "Quadrille Anyone?", "Children in the Temple Ground", "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")
• Rick Culver – trombone ("March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")

• Peter Donald – drums (except "Opus Number Zero" and "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")
• Chuck Flores – drums ("Opus Number Zero" and "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")
• Don Baldwin – bass ("Road Time Shuffle", "Tales of a Courtesan", "Strive for Jive", "I Ain't Gonna Ask No More", "Interlude", "Village", "Studio J", "Transience", "Sumi-E", "Minamata", "March of the Tadpoles", "Mobile", "Deracinated Flower", "Yellow is Mellow" and "Notorious Tourist from the East")
• Gene Cherico
  Gene Cherico
  Eugene Valentino "Gene" Cherico was an American jazz double-bassist....
  
   – bass ("Elegy", "Memory", "Kogun", "American Ballad", "Henpecked Old Man", "Long Yellow Road", "The First Night", "Opus Number Zero", "Quadrille Anyone?", "Children in the Temple Ground" and "Since Perry" / "Yet Another Tear")

Special guests:

• Scott Elsworth – voice ("Memory")
• Tokuko Kaga – vocal ("Children in the Temple Ground")
• King Errisson – congas ("Village")
• Hisao Kanze – utai / Nō
  Noh
  , or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...
  
   chant ("Minamata")
• Tadao Kamei – ōtsuzumi
  Otsuzumi
  The , also known as the ōkawa, is an hourglass-shaped Japanese drum. It is a larger version of the tsuzumi, or kotsuzumi and is used in traditional Japanese theater and folk music. Its appearance and the sound it produces are slightly different than that of the tsuzumi...
  
   ("Minamata")
• Hayao Uzawa – kotsuzumi ("Minamata")
• (Monday) Michiru Mariano
  Monday Michiru
  Monday Michiru Sipiagin is a Japanese American actress, singer, and songwriter whose music encompasses and fuses a wide variety of genres including jazz, dance, pop, and soul...
  
   – voice ("Minamata")
• Hiromitsu Katada – kakko
  Kakko
  The is a Japanese double-headed drum. One way in which the kakko differs from the regular taiko drum is in the way in which it is made taut. Like the Shime-Daiko and tsuzumi, the skin of the heads are first stretched over metal hoops before they are placed on the body, tying them to each other and...
  
   ("Sumi-E")
• Emil Richards
  Emil Richards
  Emil Richards, born Emilio Joseph Radocchia on September 2, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a percussionist who plays a variety of different percussion instruments.-Biography:...
  
  – percussion ("Notorious Tourist from the East")

Sources / References

• Mosaic Select MS-033, Mosaic Records
• Mosaic Select 33, Toshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band at [ Allmusic.com]