Plays Standards

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 01:06:58
Ground-Zero includes: Otomo Yoshihide (vocals, guitar, reeds, euphonium, surdo, bells, turntables); Uchihashi Kazuhisa (acoustic & electric guitars, sound effects, background vocals); Kikuchi Naruyoshi 9soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone, background vocals); Nasuno Mitsuru (electric bass, background vocals); Uemura Masahiro (Uemura Masahiro (drums, shaker, tambourine, gong). Additional personnel: Keshavan Maslak (guitar, saxophone); Sergey Kuryokhin (piano); Phew (background vocals). Producers: Noda Shigenori, Otomo Yoshihide, Matsubara Sachiko. Engineers: Kondo Yoshiaki, Matsubara Sachiko. Recorded at GOK Sound and Fuji Height Studios, Tokyo, Japan from January 4-9, 1997. Includes liner notes by Otomo Yoshihide. Other than Null & Void, this is the most fully realized album from Ground Zero, one of many projects master-minded by ambitious gadfly-turntablist Otomo Yoshihide. Although this Japanese band includes two drummers, a sampler-player, and a shamisen (Japanese stringed instrument) player, the real voice is saxophonist Kikuchi Naruyoshi, whose wails and bleats lead most of the songs here. As far as cover albums go, it's obviously not as historic as Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country and Western, but it's much smarter than Guns N' Roses The Spaghetti Incident?. An impressively diverse brew is served up and reconfigured. Some highlights are Chilean protest singer Victor Jara's "El Derecho De Vivir En Paz done as a driving waltz, torch-class "Those Were The Days" done as a maelstrom, jazz pianist Steve Beresford's "The Bath of Surprise" recorded in audio-verite in an actual bathtub, a lovely sweeping tribute to singer Sakamoto Kyu, a John Philip Sousa march that would make Monty Python proud and a 'Roland Kirk version' of "I Say A Little Prayer." All of which bespeaks of Yoshihide's kaleidoscopic vision of Eastern/Western music, especially appealing here as it's presented in a song-based format that grounds the avant excursions. ~ Jason Gross
録音 : ステレオ (Studio)