[Tropical & soothing]
No.235EX "Mint Breeze" by Masaru Imada & Nowin
Hi. The song we would like to introduce to you today is, "Mint Breeze" by "Masaru Imada & Now'in".
A tropical, and soothing smooth Jazz, "Mint Breeze" was performed by a 7-piece Fusion group, "Masaru Imada & Now'in", and released in 1984, as one of the songs in their debut album "Mint Breeze".
"Masaru Imada & Now'in" was formed, and led by a prominent Jazz pianist "Masaru Imada".
The group was particularly popular in the '80s, as one of the Fusion bands performs the most stylish, and melodic tropical smooth Jazz at that time.
Actually, we think today's track "Mint Breeze" is reflecting the essence of "Masaru Imada & Now'in"'s sound quite well.
If you like, please listen to.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
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Cover art today
Song data
| Title | Mint Breeze |
|---|---|
| Artist | Masaru Imada & Now'in |
| Album Title | Mint Breeze |
| Catalog Number | ARTCD-46 |
| Track No. | 1 |
| Duration | 5:32 |
| Released | 1984 |
| Publisher | Polydor |
| Lyricist | Instrumental music |
| Composer | Masaru Imada |
| Arranger | Masaru Imada |
About the creators
Instrumental music Lyricist
This is an instrumental music, and there is no lyrics for this song.
Masaru Imada Composer & Arranger
The composer & arranger of this instrumental music was "Masaru Imada", and he was also a member of the performing group.
So, We would like to come back to him in "About the artist" section later.
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Some notes on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Breezy & soothing
This songs seems to be a breezy & soothing instrumental music in a relaxing slow rhythm.
Tropical & floaty
The drums, bass, steel guitar (?), two electric guitars, and percussions begin a floaty & undulating introduction, and the main part starts with the attack of the acoustic piano.
In the main part, comfortably sustained sound of the acoustic piano, performed by "Masaru Imada", hammers out a lyrical & calming melody.
In the bridge, a long improvisation of the acoustic piano, and acoustic guitar (played by Katsumi Watanabe?) appear, and play a beautiful melody in brilliant sound.
And...
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Masaru Imada & Now'in Soothing summer breeze
"Masaru Imada & Now'in" was a roughly eight piece Jazz-Fusion group formed in 1984 by a popular Jazz pianist "Masaru Imada".
"Imada" is one of the most veteran Jazz musician, and composer active who reached his 90th birthday in the last year, 2022.
He started his music career in 1964, and still active as a Jazz pianist even now.
They say that "Masaru Imada" formed this Fusion group to seek for new sounds, by gathering fresh faces of rising Jazz musicians showing shiny talents.
Since "Masaru Imada & Now'in" was a part of "Imada"'s music career, we also would like to refer to his profile as a Jazz musician since debuted.
"Masaru Imada & Now'in" debuted in 1984 with their first album, "Mint Breeze". Since then, 7 original, and 1 best albums have been released until now.
"Masaru Imada" (今田勝) himself started his career in 1964, and released his first leader album, "Maki" in 1970. Since then, more than 40 Jazz albums have been released to date.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Masaru Imada & Now'in)
Early times
According to some article, "Masaru Imada" was born in Tokyo in 1932.
When he was a kindergarten child, though it was before the world war II, "Imada" interested in the reed organ equipped in the nursery class room, and began to play.
Luckily, a teacher in the kindergarten was a good tutor of the organ, and "Imada" enjoyed the lessons from the woman nursery teacher.
And certainly, this experience motivated him to learn keyboards more.
When entered a primary school, "Imada" quickly noticed there was the piano in the school.
He soon got an approval, and began to play the piano for fun and practising.
But this time, he had to learn the piano on a self-supporting basis, since there were no tutor.
Luckily. or unluckily, his self-schooling could not last long, since his primary school, and the piano were totally destroyed by an airborne attack.
Because, his childhood days was coincided with the peak time of the world war II.
Even in such tough time, "Imada" managed to find the piano from anywhere for him to play and practice.
And when he went up to a university, he began to teach himself Jazz piano, and slowly started a music career as a semi-professional.
Settle in the Jazz world
In fact, when he was a university student in postwar mess, there were no open, fixed, or routine training course for Jazz at all, and the most of musicians interested in Jazz, were learned it through an American Radio network "FEN" (or AFN), or records, or bought music scores sometimes though they were quite expensive.
"Imada" obviously took this route to learn the latest Jazz, and before too long, he formed a band, and began to get a job at military camps since his piano play was already excellent.
Some references say that "Imada" set out his professional career in the mid '50s. And went into the life as a rising Jazz pianist, and performed in various place with various people as a session musician.
In 1964, "Imada" seemed to have his first Jazz group as a leader.
And in 1970, he finally released his first leader album "Maki" as "Masaru Imada trio plus one".
Since this time, "Imada" went into releasing modern, but fairly orthodox acoustic Jazz albums in Trio, or Quartet style quite constantly until late '70s.
But in the late '70s, "Imada" began to introduce new style into his music.
Because he was well aware of the fact that the new variation of Jazz, namely "Crossover", "Jazz-rock", or "Fusion" were coming into fashion in Jazz scene in all over the world.
In 1979, "Imada" newly contracted with a popular Jazz label, "Full-house" (sub-label of Trio record, later JVC Kenwood.), and refreshed his business environment.
At "Full-house" label, "Imada" got to know a competent music producer "Ken (Kenny) Inaoka" who became in charge of "Imada".
And this encounter brought a new musical twist for both of them.
Fusion era
From 1979 to the early 1980, "Imada" launched two of a little experimental piano solo albums as a warm-up.
And in the late 1980, "Imada" released a much-awaited Jazz combo album "Andalusian Breeze" by inviting a later super guitarist, "Katsumi Watanabe" to his quartet.
A Latin & Brazilian taste Fusion album "Andalusian Breeze" provided a fresh air like, brand-new, refreshing, acoustic, and artistic crossover sound. And it was exceptionally accepted well by the wider fans of instrumental music.
Thanks to the success of this album, "Imada" & a producer "Kenny Inaoka" were convinced to chase this line further.
(In fact, the drum solo, percussion solo, and piano solo in this album are impressive, so please listen to if you have a chance.)
In 1981, "Inaoka" & "Imada" plotted a more Fusion leaning new album, "Carnival", by inviting powerful, and rising Fusion musicians like, "Yūichi Togashiki" (Dr) or "Akira Okazawa" (EB).
While they were planning the details of the album, the producer "Inaoka" caught an interesting news that a prominent American jazz fusion music unit, "The Brecker Brothers" (Randy & Michael) were coming to Japan, and it would coincide with the timing of their recording.
"Inaoka" soon contacted, and negotiated with them if there were any chance for them to join the recording of "Imada"'s during their stay in Japan in 1981.
"Inaoka" obtained a positive answer from them. And the two great players took part in the recording of "Imada"'s as a special guests.
(Japan was wealthy enough to make impossible thing possible, in this period of time.)
As a result, their new release "Carnival" became an incredibly nice album.
Above all, the performance of "The Brecker brothers" were superb.
We suppose there was a chemical reaction on this album.
The performance of all the musicians were in fact spirited.
If you are a fan of Fusion music, please give it a try.
Gorgeous guests
"Inaoka" & "Imada" seemed to be allowed to continue this luxury for some time.
In response to positive reactions from fans for recent albums, "Imada" & the producer soon initiated a production of a new album, "Blue Marine" in 1982,
On this album, the half of tracks were recorded in Tokyo by inviting a renowned American Jazz guitarist "Steve Khan", together with his group "Eye witness", which was membered by "Anthony Jackson" (B), "Manolo Badrena" (Perc), and "Steve Jordan" (Dr) as guests.
Then, after the recording session in Tokyo, "Imada" & the producer travelled to New York together with Steve Khan team.
And in New York, they joined up with the other two high-profile musicians, namely, "Tom Browne" (Tp), and "Grover Washington, Jr." (S.Sax).
In fact, Glover's miraculous album "Winelight" (1980) was released in just two years ago of this session, and we imagine he was in his prime as a musician.
How did the producer book his schedule?
Anyway, if you have a chance, please listen to.
Ultimate version, and a break for dream travel
In 1983, to create an ultimate album of "Imada" in this line, the producer and the pianist planned a new recording in overseas, again in New York.
On this occasion, the producer and "Imada" asked "Katsumi Watanabe", the ace guitarist indispensable for this project, to fly with them, and secured to obtain ideal sound for the guitar.
And in New York, powerful musicians like following were waiting them.
- David Sanborn
- Alto Saxophone
- Will Lee
- Bass Guitar
- Anthony MacDonald
- Cowbell
- Guilherme Franco
- Percussion
- Randy Brecker
- Flugelhorn
- Steve Gadd
- Drums
It seems they had a really professional session, and an excellent resort Fusion album was created.
This new album titled as "A Day In The Paradise" (Coral no nagisa). And was released in 1983 as "Imada"'s 21st leader album.
It came out of the blue, but "Trio Record", which had been releasing albums of "Imada", announced that they would withdraw from record business for strategic reasons.
And by this decision, the collaboration between "Imada" and the music producer "Kenny Inaoka" came to a tentative end.
Masaru Imada & Now'in
In 1984, "Masaru Imada" moved to a new record label Polydor, and began to form a new Fusion group.
On this occasion, "Imada" had a plan in his mind that he would prioritize young and high potential new faces for new members of the band.
Because he was feeling there had been less chances for them, compared with the well-recognized musicians.
As a consequence, seven new musicians, including a guitarist "Katsumi Watanabe", saxophonist "Toshiyuki Honda", and "Imada"'s son, "Akira Imada", were selected as members.
And "Imada"'s new Fusion group "Masaru Imada Now'in" was formed.
In 1984, "Masaru Imada Now'in" launched their debut album ""Mint Breeze", which we are introducing today.
A refined & soothing new album was accepted well by fans, and they quickly became a popular group in the category.
In fact, "Masaru Imada Now'in" soon came to be a regular face at Jazz festivals around Japan.
A music fan like our writer "Satsuma", who was a student at that time, were frequently going to those events like Jazz festivals, and remembers he was almost always seeing them as one of the performing groups.
Since they launched the debut album in 1984, "Masaru Imada Now'in" constantly released fine Jazz-Fusion albums until 1996, by switching the members regularly.
And since this year, the members of the band returned to the life as individual musicians.
Grow new talents, and recent life
"Imada" seems to be keen to grow new talents in his music area.
At least the late '90s, "Imada" had been a piano teacher at "Kunitachi music academy" in Tokyo, though the exact timing of taking up the post is unclear.
And it seems quite a few students received lessons from "Imada" are on the road to be professional musicians.
In 2017, "Imada" was appointed to be a director of the company running the school.
On the other hand, "Imada" is still quite active as a Jazz pianist, and constantly holding gigs in small venues around Tokyo as his most basic "Masaru Imada" Trio form.
He seems to be a born piano man, and Jazz musician.
References
For more details about "Masaru Imada & Now'in", please have a look at the references linked below.
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(Ref: www.imadamasaru.com/,
profile_frame.htm)🇯🇵
Video clip
Lastly, we would like to introduce a music clip of today's song "Mint Breeze" by "Masaru Imada & Now'in".
Fortunately, a music video seems has been uploaded as "Masaru Imada topic" with permission.
So, if you like, please listen to.
And in addition to that, we also would like to bring up another nice tune "Mermaid Princess" from Imada's album "A day in the paradise" (1983).
Interestingly, this track has been popularly used particularly as a BGM for "High-way information" since the release, and we know quite a few radio stations are still using this.
So, if there were a hit chart for "Highway, or traffic information BGM", this tune might have been in the top group.
If you like, please listen.
Music Samples
1
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Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
music.apple.com (Track No.1)
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Mint Breeze |
|---|---|
| Artist | 今田勝NOWIN(Masaru Imada & Now'in) |
| Album Title | Mint Breeze |
