Michio Imazato

When Michio Imazato first heard Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”, a record he checked out from the public library in Maebashi, he couldn’t have known he’d be leading his own quintet ten years later in New York City. After all, he was a typical rock and roll loving high school kid playing Deep Purple riffs on guitar. “I played the record, I didn’t even know what it was, but my room just filled with colors,” he said. “I knew I wanted to express those kinds of feelings. The riffs are so simple, but there’s so  much there.”

From Gunma to Hokkaido to Boston and then to New York, for most players the modern Mecca of jazz, he learned to express quite a lot. “Well, actually, I want to play that warm, dark something between the notes. I want to express taste with my horn, to give a unique sound to people,” he said in a recent interview.

His new CD, “Gentle Rose”, does just that. Recorded in New York with his regular New York gigsters, and released by What’s New Records in Tokyo, the nine cuts, seven of which are originals, unfold in layers of delicately evoked colors and carefully performed textures. “The CD is a kind of memorial,” said Imazato, “A memorial to ten years spent in the U.S. learning and playing jazz. I didn’t know how I’d feel after coming back to Japan, so I wanted to capture what I felt in New York.”

What Imazato has captured is a complex set of jazz moods played by a very expressive, accomplished quintet. The title cut opens with an elegant, understated melody that builds into a soft crescendo of colorful chords. The drums and bass work a solidly repeated Middle Eastern rhythm accented by lyrical piano fills. The solos by saxophonist John Ellis and pianist Andrew Adair, who regularly played at Imazato’s New York gigs, are tasteful, warm and comfortably placed. On top of all this talent, Imazato’s cool jazz trumpeting has a lush, golden tone that melts richly into the mix.

Now, settled back in Tokyo, his live shows switch easily from upbeat crowd pleasers off the CD like “Hustle with J.B.”, to slower, reflective numbers that could be filed under cool jazz if they weren’t so complex. Imazato said he was worried that Tokyo audiences would expect him to just play copies of the 50s/60s Blue Note sound so popular here. But when his quintet does play a number by Kenny Dorham or Sam Jones, the sound comes out vibrant with new colors and fresh subtleties. The quintet can dig into funky grooves holding up sparkling, clever solos, then follow with a slower tempo of oxygen-rich blowing that makes originals and standards alike glow like coals.

That kind of maturity and completeness of approach takes years for a leader and player to accomplish. To do that, Imazato spent time playing all over. After stints at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and the New School in New York with his mentor on trumpet, Eddie Henderson, he kept garnering awards, getting into ensembles, jamming with blues bands, and playing sessions with some of New York’s top-notch young players. Eventually, he had a regular gig in New York with the solid players who join him on “Gentle Rose.”

Still, he wanted something more. Part of the reason he returned to Tokyo was to focus on a more holistic approach to jazz playing. “In New York, I learned to play fast. New York jazz is exciting, but sometimes too much on the exciting side,” notes Imazato with a laugh. “That’s great, but then you can’t play a nice, relaxed thing. You can’t make those colors.”

“In New York, there’s the cutting edge like the Knitting Factory scene where clubgoers are always looking for something new and burning. And in Boston the jazz is often too artistic. It’s not entertaining, almost as if they hate entertainment. I wanted to learn the whole aspect of jazz, to do more moods and feelings. So I came back.”

Tokyo audiences are definitely looking for entertainment. Or maybe enlightenment. They sit respectfully at jazz clubs, facing the stage, barely eating or drinking, certainly not talking. They read in between sets. “They’re definitely expecting something perfect,” he admits. “More than anything, Japanese audiences are always looking for quality.” They’ll find that without any trouble on the CD and in Imazato’s live sets. It certainly didn’t take him ten years to get a regular gig in Tokyo. After a year back, his quintet regularly plays at jazz club Sonoka and the newly opened Red Pepper. He also plays with a big band or two.

At a recent live CD release party, the CD’s opener, “Chrysanthemum,” brought out a dreamy, head-nodding response from the audience. Some listeners clearly already knew the melody by heart from the CD. These were the kind looking for quality, and finding it.

(Originally published in The Japan Times March 2001)