Direction

Ochanomizu Naru
November 26, 2005

Masahiko Osaka—drums
Tetsuro Kawashima—alto and tenor saxes
Yuta Kaneko—Hammond B3 organ
    

This is a brilliant collaboration pure and simple. With these three together, no group could fail, but of course, this trio rises way above high expectations to achieve a genuine full collaboration.

The evening got started with a super-fast drum intro from Osaka followed by lightly touched organ chords from Kaneko and a searching, circling sax intro from Kawashima. Building and building, they finally burst into the modal cool of "Blue in Green," only at double the tempo. The song set the evening's level at an intense high and showed all three of the players' strengths to their best advantage. The super-fast nimble rhythm with lush thick harmonies and a melody line loaded with notes was a structure they would build on with every song.

The danger with a group like this is everyone stumbling over each other, but everyone stayed out of everyone else's way. It was jazz politics at its best, no hassles, only support. This sense of the power dynamics in a group, letting everyone announce and pick songs, and not demanding anything except the best playing, was especially appealing. The three have gotten away from the group dynamic of many Japanese, and many American, groups, and dug into a new way of working together.     

The result was fresh and sincere music that brought together many elements. The funkier blues let Kaneko play a range of bluesy, B3 tricks. The faster numbers opened up room for Kawashima to blast away. Osaka, of course, dropped bombs and broke up time all through everything. Whether on bop, blues or Brazilian, the three kept the concept enacted. The group wasn't just a good idea, it was great music.

The small moments added up. "Love Dance" was taken at an even tempo. "Tell Me a Bedtime Story," the opener to the second stage, found Kaneko and Kawashima laying down an ostinato groove over which Osaka jammed to his heart's content. Their arrangements, too, felt natural. "So Many Stars" remained calm and relaxed even while working with an unusually funky rhythm. The Coltrane tunes, though, were what dug deepest. The three gave Coltrane passionate solos, even while tossing in fun quotes from gospel to Dixieland.

Especially nice, too, was the fact that the group, which had just finished a recording together, didn't feel the need to promote their release by playing songs from the CD. Instead, they played together. A commercial mentality is of course a necessity of the business, but it was nice to hear a band that really can and does play together to make great music, not just a great commodity.

Direction felt like jazz stripped down to its basics and then built back up, like a hand-built motorcycle with specialty parts, not at all a factory-made model. All three of these players work with so many kinds of groups around town, fitting in everywhere, and yet here, they seem to be playing most like themselves.