Different Fur Sessions circa 1973
Musicians: Piano: Eiji Tsuchiya; Bass: Ben Luis; Drums: Eddie Marshall; Suprano, Alto, Tenor Saxs: David Davoud Johnson; Alto Sax, Flute, Fue, taiko: Russel Baba; Guitar: Makoto Horiuchi; Percussion: Doug Santos; Erhu: Mr.Lui (Orioles and the Willows & Rain Song); Chinese flute, guitar: (Orioles and the Willows, Rain Song): Noel Jewkes, Taiko (Spirit Dance): Seichi Tanaka, Taiko (Spirit Dance): Jeannie Mercer
The music for this session was composed for the PBS station WTTW in Chicago for a show about youth. The recording was done in a small studio located in the Mission District of San Francisco. This studio still exists but under a different owner. It was owned at the time by Patrick Gleason who was a pioneer in electronic music. He even played in Herbie Hancock’s band for awhile. I remember he was one of the first people who had a synclavier which was state of the art at the time.
This recording is unique because Noel Jewkes who is normally known as a saxophone player is playing Chinese flutes on Orioles and the Willows and is playing guitar on Rain song. Guitar? He even sounds better than myself! lol For those of you not familiar with Noel, He has been a cornerstone of the Bay Area music scene for years. I met Noel when I first came to the San Francisco in 1967. Also we were experimenting with Seichi Tanaka using the sounds of the Taiko, hence Tanaka San, the Sensei of San Francisco Taiko, along with Russell Baba, and Jeannie Mercer were playing taiko on this recording. From this congregation of musicians, we formed the band called Kamikaze. I will be posting more performances by this band which changed personnel as time passes.
I converted them to 24bit 44.1 audio files, but the software used for the internet is only compatible with the 16bit mp3 format so the sound is a little compressed. This session was transferred from a 1″ master that luckily hadn’t crumbled. I felt that the performance needed to be heard by those who would be interested. For myself even given all these limitations the spirit of the performance and the aura of the times comes through the recording. I hope you enjoy it.