Masaru Imada Trio +2 – Green Caterpillar (1975, LP, Japan)

Tracklist:

A1 A Green Caterpillar - 11:24

A2 Straight Flash - 10:27

B1 Blue Impulse - 10:28

B2 Spanish Flower - 11:15

Musicians:

Bass – Isoo Fukui

Congas, Percussion – Yuji Imamura

Drums – Tetsujiro Obara

Guitar – Kazumi Watanabe

Piano – Masaru Imada

Japanese jazz is sadly one of best-kept secret. But, it would be stupid to not discover "Green Caterpillar" by Masaru Imada trio + 2. Led by Masaru Imada and his Fender Rhodes, the record opens with " A Green Caterpillar", a 11 minutes piece whose the groove is somewhat reminiscent of Marc Moulin and his Placebo band. "A Straight Flash" continues along this line, while on "Blue Impulse" and "Spanish Flower" Masaru Imada uses the piano in a much more modal style.