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Motoharu Yoshizawa

Motoharu Yoshizawa

Motoharu Yoshizawa has been played on NTS in shows including We Are Not Alone, featured first on 7 January 2017. Songs played include Correspondance, The Man From S.L.A.P.P.Y. and Administratio.

Motoharu Yoshizawa (吉沢元治) (1931-1998) was an influential Japanese bassist, known for playing in a distinctive free jazz and free improvisation style, sometimes deploying electronics and using the unusual self-designed five-string bass he referred to as the 'Tiritack'. Yoshizawa collaborated with innumerable musicians over his long career, some of the better known include Masayuki Takayanagi, Masahiko Togashi, Takehisa Kosugi, Mototeru Takagi, Kaoru Abe, Steve Lacy, Dave Burrell, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barre Phillips, Butch Morris, Elliot Sharp, Ikue Mori, Keiji Haino, Kan Mikami (see: Kan Mikami / Motoharu Yoshizawa / Keiji Haino), Kazuki Tomokawa, & Tenko.

Yoshizawa began playing in a free style in the mid-sixties, first in the groups of Yosuke Yamashita and Kazunori Takeda, and also participating in a famous jam session with Elvin Jones during John Coltrane's Japan tour of 1966. Yoshizawa's own trio with Mototeru Takagi was said to have been a pivotal group for Japanese free jazz, though no recordings survive. In 1969, Yoshizawa played with the famous Masahiko Togashi quartet and Masayuki Takayanagi and New Directions, participating in both groups' landmark recording sessions of that year. Yoshizawa was a pioneer of solo bass performance, his experiments synchronous with those of Barre Phillips, first playing in this style in 1969, though nothing was recorded until several years later. In the mid-seventies Yoshizawa recorded three albums for solo bass. Later in the seventies he had a fruitful collaboration with mercurial free alto saxophonist Kaoru Abe, which led to the recording of one album, Nord (Kaoru Abe & Motoharu Yoshizawa). In the nineties Yoshizawa began experimenting with an effects-laden five-string bass of his own design. He spent six months living and playing in New York in 1989-1990. In the nineties he released several albums for the Japanese PSF label and kept playing with all kinds of people from the jazz and improv scene and beyond. He died on 12 September 1998.

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Motoharu Yoshizawa

Motoharu Yoshizawa has been played on NTS in shows including We Are Not Alone, featured first on 7 January 2017. Songs played include Correspondance, The Man From S.L.A.P.P.Y. and Administratio.

Motoharu Yoshizawa (吉沢元治) (1931-1998) was an influential Japanese bassist, known for playing in a distinctive free jazz and free improvisation style, sometimes deploying electronics and using the unusual self-designed five-string bass he referred to as the 'Tiritack'. Yoshizawa collaborated with innumerable musicians over his long career, some of the better known include Masayuki Takayanagi, Masahiko Togashi, Takehisa Kosugi, Mototeru Takagi, Kaoru Abe, Steve Lacy, Dave Burrell, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barre Phillips, Butch Morris, Elliot Sharp, Ikue Mori, Keiji Haino, Kan Mikami (see: Kan Mikami / Motoharu Yoshizawa / Keiji Haino), Kazuki Tomokawa, & Tenko.

Yoshizawa began playing in a free style in the mid-sixties, first in the groups of Yosuke Yamashita and Kazunori Takeda, and also participating in a famous jam session with Elvin Jones during John Coltrane's Japan tour of 1966. Yoshizawa's own trio with Mototeru Takagi was said to have been a pivotal group for Japanese free jazz, though no recordings survive. In 1969, Yoshizawa played with the famous Masahiko Togashi quartet and Masayuki Takayanagi and New Directions, participating in both groups' landmark recording sessions of that year. Yoshizawa was a pioneer of solo bass performance, his experiments synchronous with those of Barre Phillips, first playing in this style in 1969, though nothing was recorded until several years later. In the mid-seventies Yoshizawa recorded three albums for solo bass. Later in the seventies he had a fruitful collaboration with mercurial free alto saxophonist Kaoru Abe, which led to the recording of one album, Nord (Kaoru Abe & Motoharu Yoshizawa). In the nineties Yoshizawa began experimenting with an effects-laden five-string bass of his own design. He spent six months living and playing in New York in 1989-1990. In the nineties he released several albums for the Japanese PSF label and kept playing with all kinds of people from the jazz and improv scene and beyond. He died on 12 September 1998.

Original source: Last.fm

Tracks featured on

Most played tracks

Correspondance
吉沢元治
PJL2003
The Man From S.L.A.P.P.Y.
Kaoru Abe, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Toshinori Kondo, Derek Bailey
Starlight Furniture Co.1999
Administratio
Kaoru Abe, Motoharu Yoshizawa, Toshinori Kondo, Derek Bailey
Starlight Furniture Co.1999