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Artist
Motoharu Yoshizawa
12+ albums
jazzfree jazzimprovisationAvant Jazzfree improvisation
about
Motoharu Yoshizawa (吉沢元治) (1931-1998) was an influential Japanese bassist, known for playing in a distinctive free jazz and free improvisation style, sometimes deploying electronics and using the unusual self-designed five-string bass he referred to as the 'Tiritack'. Yoshizawa collaborated with innumerable musicians over his long career, some of the better known include Masayuki Takayanagi, Masahiko Togashi, Takehisa Kosugi, Mototeru Takagi, Kaoru Abe, Steve Lacy, Dave Burrell, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barre Phillips, Butch Morris, Elliot Sharp, Ikue Mori, Keiji Haino, Kan Mikami (see: Kan Mikami / Motoharu Yoshizawa / Keiji Haino), Kazuki Tomokawa, & Tenko. Yoshizawa began playing in a free style in the mid-sixties, first in the groups of Yosuke Yamashita and Kazunori Takeda, and also participating in a famous jam session with Elvin Jones during John Coltrane's Japan tour of 1966. Yoshizawa's own trio with Mototeru Takagi was said to have been a pivotal group for Japanese free jazz, though no recordings survive. In 1969, Yoshizawa played with the famous Masahiko Togashi quartet and Masayuki Takayanagi and New Directions, participating in both groups' landmark recording sessions of that year. Yoshizawa was a pioneer of solo bass performance, his experiments synchronous with those of Barre Phillips, first playing in this style in 1969, though nothing was recorded until several years later. In the mid-seventies Yoshizawa recorded three albums for solo bass. Later in the sev
