Takeo Moriyama - Yama (Vinyl)

Black Vinyl 2LP, Spin This Now! Series

Yama is drummer Takeo Moriyama's 2002 quintet album, first issued on CD by the 3361*BLACK label and long out of print. This Tokuma Japan Communications edition is its first release on vinyl, cut across two black LPs, and the third title in Spin This Now!, the Japanese jazz reissue series run by the record pressing company Toyo Kasei.

It came out in July 2002 together with a companion album, Mori. Where Mori gathers slower pieces, Yama is built around up-tempo material. The liner notes date the session to March 9 and 10, 2002, at Studio F in Tajimi, Gifu Prefecture.

The quintet is Moriyama on drums, Nobumasa Tanaka on piano, Hideaki Mochizuki on bass, and Eiji Otogawa and George Garzone on soprano and tenor saxophones. Garzone wrote three of the five pieces, Otogawa wrote "Sound River," and "Sunrise" is by Fumio Itabashi. Light in the Attic's notes describe Moriyama's drumming here as sharp yet deeply embracing.

The original CD was issued to mark Moriyama's Nanri Fumio Award, and Swing Journal selected it as a Gold Disc. Moriyama was the drummer in pianist Yosuke Yamashita's trio, touring Europe with the group until he left at the end of 1975, and he has led his own bands since moving to Nagoya in 1977.

Tracklist

1. A Fox In The Woods
2. Sound River
3. Hey, Open Up!
4. Tribute To Trane
5. Sunrise