Road Time (Remastered) (Live) Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band

• 1 Tuning Up (Live) 16:50
• 2 Warning:Success May Be Hazardous to Your Health (Live) 07:34
• 3 Henpecked Old Man (Live) 22:54
• 4 Soliloquy (Live) 08:39
• 5 Kogun (Live) 10:41
• 6 Since Perry / Yet Another Tear (Live) 14:02
• 7 Road Time Shuffle (Live) 06:22
• Total Runtime 01:27:02

Info for Road Time (Remastered) (Live)

Road Time was the first live concert recording of the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band. The recording was made at three concerts in Tōkyō and Ōsaka, during a 1976 Japan tour and the double album received a 1977 Grammy nomination in the "Best Jazz Performance - Big Band" category.

A great little live set from the glory days of the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band – a series of performances from Japan, recorded in 1976, all featuring the ensemble at its best! The double-length nature of the record takes the group even farther than usual – really letting them stretch out with the kind of bold tones and broad colors that made the group so great. Soloists include Bobby Shew on trumpet, Jimmy Knepper on trombone, and Gary Foster on alto sax – alongside leaders Lew Tabackin on tenor and flute, and Toshiko Akioshi on piano. Titles include a nicely dancing reading of the classic "Warning: Success May Be Hazardous To Your Health" – plus "Kogun", "Henpecked Old Man", "Tuning Up", "Since Perry/Yet Another Tear" and "Soliloquy".

"This double album, which, like most of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra's recordings, is currently out of print, gives one a definitive look at her 1970s orchestra. Akiyoshi's arrangements are colorful and swinging; the best charts on this two-fer are "Tuning Up," the nearly 23-minute "Henpecked Old Man," "Kogun" (which pays tribute to her Japanese heritage) and "Road Time Shuffle." This edition of the orchestra includes such major players as trumpeter Steve Huffstetter and Bobby Shew, trombonist Jimmy Knepper, altoists Dick Spencer and Gary Foster and Lew Tabackin on tenor and flute. It's highly recommended, if it can be found." (Scott Yanow)

Toshiko Akiyoshi, piano
Lew Tabackin, tenor saxophone and flute
Tom Peterson, tenor saxophone
Dick Spencer, alto saxophone
Gary Foster, alto saxophone
Bill Byrne, baritone saxophone
Steven Huffsteter, trumpet
Bobby Shew, trumpet
Richard Cooper, trumpet
Mike Price, trumpet
Bill Reichenbach Jr., trombone
Jim Sawyer, trombone
Jimmy Knepper, trombone
Phil Teele, bass trombone
Don Baldwin, bass
Peter Donald, drums
Guests:
Kisaku Katada, kotsuzumi (on "Kogun")
Yutaka Yazaki, ōtsuzumi (on "Kogun")

Digitally remastered

Toshiko Akiyoshi
Over the course of a seven-decade career, NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of jazz. In 1929, at the time of her birth, Akiyoshi’s Japanese family resided in Manchuria, China where she studied piano from a young age. At the end of World War II in 1945, Akiyoshi’s family endured hardship and moved back to Japan. To get access to a piano, she took her first job as a musician, playing in a dance-hall band. She was discovered by pianist Oscar Peterson while he was on a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour of Japan. In 1953, Peterson encouraged producer Norman Granz to record her. While still in Japan, she made her recording debut with Peterson’s rhythm section (Herbie Ellis, Ray Brown and J.C. Heard) which was released in 1954 in both Japan and the U.S. This album led to a full scholarship (including a plane ticket) to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Akiyoshi moved to New York in 1959, playing at Birdland, the Village Gate, the Five Spot, and the Half Note. In 1972 she then moved to Los Angeles with her second husband, saxophonist/flutist Lew Tabackin. The following year, the couple formed the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra Featuring Lew Tabackin. According to Akiyoshi’s biography on Mezzrow’s site, their big band was considered one of the most important in the nation/world during the 1970s and 1980s). In 1976, the band placed first in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll, and Akiyoshi’s album Long Yellow Road was named best jazz album of the year by Stereo Review. In 1982, (comma added) Akiyoshi moved to New York and re-formed her band with New York-based musicians; they debuted to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall as part of the 1983 Kool Jazz Festival.

Akiyoshi has recorded over 60 albums as a leader, three as a solo pianist and over 20 with full jazz orchestra. In 2007, she received the nation’s highest jazz honor (National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master), 14 Grammy Award nominations 16 DownBeat Readers’ Poll Awards, and 13 DownBeat Critics’ Poll Awards. In Japan, Akiyoshi has received numerous awards, and has been honored twice by the Emperor of Japan. She has written an autobiography and is the subject of the documentary, Jazz is My Native Language.

This album contains no booklet.