Masayuki Takayanagi And New Direction Unit Eclipse = | Black Editions

Description

I’ve long suspected that there had to be a musician somewhere who’d been irrevocably changed by ‘Free Form Guitar’, that gristly slab of blaring soundmeat which sits smack in the middle of the (otherwise largely mom-safe) deluxe double platter Chicago Transit Authority. Terry Kath hardly invented atonal free improv, sure, but his contribution to the form is a damn sight easier to stumble across than Sonny Sharrock or Derek Bailey, and doubly so back then. Surely, someone must have been touched.

Well, cancel the search: word is, the late Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi is just the Kath-man I’ve had in mind. Previously a virtuosic Lennie Tristano devotee, Free Form Guitar was the forceful hand that made Takayanagi turn his back on cool jazz in favour of high-lickin’ freakout fires. The Quietus