Takeshi Inomata, Drums
B-side
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Takeshi Inomata was already one of Japan’s established jazz drummers when, at the end of the 1960s, he began looking beyond the conventional modern-jazz format. Influenced by the emerging brass-rock movement, he formed Sound Limited around a younger generation of musicians including Ryo Kawasaki, Toshiaki Yokota, Takao Uematsu and Shunzo Ohno. His stated ambition was not simply to add rock elements to jazz, but to build a larger, more energetic ensemble that could move outside the boundaries of the small jazz group.
That idea is already fully formed on the group’s first album. Electric guitars, organ and bass sit alongside flute and a substantial brass section, while Inomata’s drumming acts less as accompaniment than as the mechanism holding the different layers together. The result belongs to the brief period when Japanese jazz-rock still felt unstable and exploratory, before fusion settled into a more recognisable language.
SOUND LIMITED / JAZZ-ROCK
Sound Limited brought together musicians who would later appear across very different parts of the Japanese jazz scene: guitarist Ryo Kawasaki, flautist Toshiaki Yokota, saxophonist Takao Uematsu, trumpeter Shunzo Ohno and organist Yusuke Hoguchi, among others. The unusually broad instrumentation allowed the group to shift rapidly between brass-rock, psychedelic passages, funk rhythms and more open jazz improvisation.
What interests me most is how little the record tries to resolve those elements into one polished style. At times it is driven by organ and electric guitar, elsewhere by flute or massed brass; then the drums suddenly pull everything back toward rhythm. That instability is a large part of its appeal.
SELECTED RECORDS
Sounds of Sound L.T.D. — 1970
This is one of those records where the ensemble itself is the main attraction. Tak’s Tune, Joint, Monster and Scotland Scene move through markedly different textures, but the album retains a continuous sense of forward motion. Inomata’s drums are precise without sounding restrained, while organ, flute, guitar and brass continually compete for space.
For me, its strength is the absence of a single dominant formula. Jazz-rock, psychedelia, funk and big-band force coexist without being completely domesticated. The record sounds like musicians discovering what an electric Japanese jazz ensemble could become rather than working from an established model.
LISTEN / THEME — MUSTACHE
Takeshi Inomata — drums
Ryo Kawasaki — electric guitar
Toshiaki Yokota — flute
Takao Uematsu — tenor saxophone
Yusuke Hoguchi — organ
Jun Suzuki — electric bass
Recorded: 1970
Location: Tokyo Studio Centre
Original issue: Nippon Columbia, HS-7001
Released: 1 August 1970
Takeshi Inomata was already one of Japan’s established jazz drummers when, at the end of the 1960s, he began looking beyond the conventional modern-jazz format. Influenced by the emerging brass-rock movement, he formed Sound Limited around a younger generation of musicians including Ryo Kawasaki, Toshiaki Yokota, Takao Uematsu and Shunzo Ohno. His stated ambition was not simply to add rock elements to jazz, but to build a larger, more energetic ensemble that could move outside the boundaries of the small jazz group.
That idea is already fully formed on the group’s first album. Electric guitars, organ and bass sit alongside flute and a substantial brass section, while Inomata’s drumming acts less as accompaniment than as the mechanism holding the different layers together. The result belongs to the brief period when Japanese jazz-rock still felt unstable and exploratory, before fusion settled into a more recognisable language.
SOUND LIMITED / JAZZ-ROCK
Sound Limited brought together musicians who would later appear across very different parts of the Japanese jazz scene: guitarist Ryo Kawasaki, flautist Toshiaki Yokota, saxophonist Takao Uematsu, trumpeter Shunzo Ohno and organist Yusuke Hoguchi, among others. The unusually broad instrumentation allowed the group to shift rapidly between brass-rock, psychedelic passages, funk rhythms and more open jazz improvisation.
What interests me most is how little the record tries to resolve those elements into one polished style. At times it is driven by organ and electric guitar, elsewhere by flute or massed brass; then the drums suddenly pull everything back toward rhythm. That instability is a large part of its appeal.
SELECTED RECORDS
Sounds of Sound L.T.D. — 1970
This is one of those records where the ensemble itself is the main attraction. Tak’s Tune, Joint, Monster and Scotland Scene move through markedly different textures, but the album retains a continuous sense of forward motion. Inomata’s drums are precise without sounding restrained, while organ, flute, guitar and brass continually compete for space.
For me, its strength is the absence of a single dominant formula. Jazz-rock, psychedelia, funk and big-band force coexist without being completely domesticated. The record sounds like musicians discovering what an electric Japanese jazz ensemble could become rather than working from an established model.
LISTEN / THEME — MUSTACHE
Takeshi Inomata — drums
Ryo Kawasaki — electric guitar
Toshiaki Yokota — flute
Takao Uematsu — tenor saxophone
Yusuke Hoguchi — organ
Jun Suzuki — electric bass
Recorded: 1970
Location: Tokyo Studio Centre
Original issue: Nippon Columbia, HS-7001
Released: 1 August 1970
