Category Archives: News

R.I.P. Chris May

Anouncement, News, ,

A couple of days ago, UK music writer and journalist Chris May died in London. His friend and ex-Fela Kuti manager Rikki Stein emailed SoSaLa this sad news. SoSaLa got to know Chris via the Jazz webpage or platform, All About Jazz, when he was looking for a writer for last year’s 1993 album.

Luckily, Chris agreed to review it.

“…SoSaLa’s message to the media announcing the release of this 1993 recording starts with the headline: “A Noisy Voice Again With Powerful Messages” and ends with the observation: “Doing nothing and staying passive are unacceptable.” You can say that again in 2023, as much of jazz, like much of the rest of liberal, educated America, appears—at least as viewed from London—to have rolled over and given in to the seemingly inexorable march of domestic neo-fascism, which will hit the fan with the 2024 elections. Where is the tidal wave of opposition? Why is rap and rock left to do the heavy lifting? What happened to jazz’s rebellious nature?

1993 is loud, aggressive, primal, confrontational, as nuanced as a honey badger and what else have you got? It is a ferocious blend of late-period no-wave and free jazz… Basically, 1993 puts the art in cathartic. …” – By Chris May, 

Contributing Members

News

About the Contributing Musicians

Toshimaru Nakamura (electric guitar)
Toshimaru Nakamura (guitar) started his music career playing the electric guitar in various bands before joining SADATO (1991-1995) and recorded two CDs with them. 1992, Nakamura formed his own A Paragon of Beauty and released a CD in 1995. In 1997, he gave up playing his guitar for personal and musical reasons. He started to produce electronic music, becoming well-known internationally in the ONKYO scene by making electronic sounds with a No-Input Mixing Board. In addition to releasing solo projects and collaborations, he performs live concerts in Tokyo, Europe, North America, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Masaki Shimizu (fretless bass)
Rei Shimizu began his professional career while still in university. Subsequently, he participated as a session player in recordings and concerts for artists such as Makoto Kawamoto, Ayaya Matsuur, Miki Fujimoto, Morning Musume, and Turf. As a member of the band SADATO, he participated in live performances and recordings in New York and Hong Kong. He has also been active with other bands, including PON, SOH BAND, Gen Hosokawa, and Coyote. Besides, he also teaches bass online.
Ryo Kato (drums)
There’s not much information about him, except that before joining SADATO, he had played with various Pop bands and was the drum assistant for the well-known drummer Hideo Yamaki. After the breakup of SADATO, he retired from playing the drums and became a truck driver.

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Additional info about Masaki Shimizu
Rei Shimizu began his professional career while still in university. Subsequently, he participated as a session player in recordings and concerts for artists such as Makoto Kawamoto, Ayaya Matsuur, Miki Fujimoto, Morning Musume, and trf. As a member of the band SADATO, he participated in live performances and recordings in New York and Hong Kong. He has also been active with other bands including PON, SOH BAND, Gen Hosokawa, and Coyote.
Shimizu has composed and arranged music for commercial jingles, as well as for video games such as “WWE SmackDown.” Since 1993, he has studied under Motohiko Hamase, and since 2007, he has been a part of the Motohiko Hamase The ELF Ensemble. In 2015, he launched his own band, “Rei Shimizu Elements of Quartz.”
In terms of writing activities, he contributed a year-long series of slap bass seminars titled “Brush your SLAPup!” starting from the January 2003 issue of Bass Magazine. He has also served as an instructor for seminars held by electronic instrument manufacturers ROLAND and BOSS.
Furthermore, Shimizu is currently active as an ambassador for the innovative string instrument manufacturer PROiX.
Starting from 2021, he has launched a YouTube channel with the aim of realizing his concept of creating and performing his own video works.

Ground Zero (1994)
Music Style: noise/rock/improv
Jazzy Rock Noise Unit formed by Otomo Yoshihide in 1990 and disbanded after their last concert in 1998. Otomo Yoshihide (samplers, turntable and guitar), Hideki Kato (bass: replaced in 1992 by Kazuyoshi Kimoto), Yasuo Sano (drums), Makio Tada (drums), Uemura Masahiro (drums), Kyoko Kuroda (piano) with guest Koichi Makigami (vocals), Yamatsuka Eye (vocals). The line-up changed in 1994-95: Otomo Yoshihide (sampler, turntable), Sachiko M (sampler), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar), Mitsuru Nasuno (bass), Masaki Shimizu (bass), Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums), Uemura Masahiro (drums). 1996: addition of Kikuchi Naruyoshi (soprano sax) and Tanaka Yumiko (gidayu shamisen and futozao shamisen) as regular members.

P.O.N. (https://ru.rateyourmusic.com/artist/p_o_n) – Creativeman Disk (1995)
Music style: Progressive Rock
Members: Masahiro Uemura (drums, percussion), 広瀬淳二 [Junji Hirose] (saxophone, noise), 鬼怒無月 [Natsuki Kido] (guitar, percussion), Masaki Shimizu (bass), 高良久美子 [Kumiko Takara] (vibraphone, percussion), Kazuyoshi Kimoto (bass)

Rinnesya – Creativeman Disc(1995)

Music style: electronic/jazz/rock

Members: Tadasu Yoshida: drums, Kido Natsuki: guitar, Masaki Shimizu: fretless bass, double bass and Tadashi Watanabe: violin.
Music style: Progressive Rock/Art Rock

A Japanese rock act RINNESYA were founded as a one-off hard-avantgarde-jazz rock trio by Natsuki KIDO (guitars), Tadashu YOSHIDA (drums), and Masaki SHIMIZU (bass). They released an eponymous album in 1995 in collaboration with Tadashi WATANABE (violin) via a Japanese independent label / distributor Double Trap / Creativeman Disc, after gigging a couple of times around Tokyo.