Japanese jazz great Takehiro Honda began his career with a series of classical hard-bop albums and ended it with a swathe of fine fusion sets. Sandwiched in between you'll find a series of excursions into different sides of the jazz spectrum, including this rare - and genuinely brilliant - set of instrumental and soul-jazz tracks recorded with the assistance of a big-band style 'jazz orchestra'.

With Honda's killer keys-work (both on piano and organ) at the centre of the action, the assembled collective dashes between energetic run-throughs of original compositions ('Ain't Tell You A Good Way But', 'Ain't Funky Now') and some genuinely killer covers. In the latter category you'll find a thrilling rendition of Curtis Mayfield's 'Check Out Your Mind', a deep and emotive take on Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', and a life-affirming interpretation of Otis Redding's 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay'.

PERSONNEL:

• Takehiro Honda - (piano, electric piano, organ)
• Shuzo Morikawa, T. Fushimi - (trumpet)
• Teddy Adams - (trombone)
• Kohsuke Mine - (alto sax)
• Kazunori Takeda - (tenor sax)
• James Cheek, Tetsuo Kusumoto - (drums)
• Tamio Kawabata - (bass)
• Ken Lawson - (guitar)
• Yuji Imamura - (conga)

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. Ain't Tell You A Good Way But
• A2. Check Out Your Mind
• A3. Ain't Funky Now
• A4. What's Going On

• SIDE B
• B1. Sham Time
• B2. Greasy Spoon
• B3. Dock Of The Bay