Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Misty (1979 Japanese Three Blind Mice Vinyl LP)

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio - Misty | Vinyl LP, 1979 Japanese Three Blind Mice Reissue (15PJ-1026, TBM Best 1500 Collection)

• Yamamoto’s second TBM album and one of the three most sought-after titles in the Three Blind Mice catalogue alongside Blow Up and Midnight Sugar, recorded in a single session on August 7, 1974 at Aoi Studio, Tokyo
• Piano trio format with Isoo Fukui on bass and Tetsujiro Obara on drums, playing six standards and one Yamamoto original through seven tracks that earned both the Best Engineering Award and the Jazz Disc Award from Swing Journal
• TBM Best 1500 Collection reissue from October 1979, with the same production team as every landmark TBM session: Takeshi Fujii producing, Yoshihiko Kannari engineering, Tohru Kotetsu cutting

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto was largely self-taught as a pianist. He started playing professionally at 19 in 1967 and toured internationally with the Micky Curtis Band through France, England and Switzerland before settling into the Tokyo jazz scene. In 1974, he became the house pianist at Misty, a Tokyo jazz club whose name he shared with this album (and with the Erroll Garner standard that opens it). His debut for Three Blind Mice, Midnight Sugar, had been recorded in March 1974. Five months later he was back at Aoi Studio with the same trio for Misty. The programme is almost entirely standards, and Yamamoto’s approach to them is relaxed and melodic rather than technically aggressive. “Misty” itself runs over seven minutes, opening with a spacious reading of the melody before the trio settles into a swinging interpretation. “Yesterdays” (Jerome Kern) and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (also Kern) are ballads played with restraint. “Honeysuckle Rose” (Fats Waller) and “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” (Rodgers and Hart) have more rhythmic drive. “Angel Eyes” (Matt Dennis) closes the album quietly. “Blues”, the only original, is a Yamamoto composition with a lighter, more playful groove than the title might suggest.

Isoo Fukui’s bass playing is a particular strength. Several reviewers single it out: his tone and rhythmic placement give the trio its foundation, and Yamamoto’s relaxed style depends on having that solidity underneath. Tetsujiro Obara’s drumming is unobtrusive and precise. The recording, engineered by Yoshihiko Kannari at Aoi Studio, has the TBM clarity that audiophile collectors know: the piano is captured with a natural warmth, and the bass has a physical presence that rewards good playback. This is the October 1979 reissue in the TBM Best 1500 Collection series (catalogue 15PJ-1026). Manufactured by Nippon Phonogram. Lacquer cut by Tohru Kotetsu at the Victor Company of Japan.