A great little session from this excellent Japanese alto player - and although the title and track list might make you think that the record's a straight run of classic bop tunes, it's actually got a lot of Watanabe's modal groove and a very nice edgey feel that pushes it way past the regular Charlie Parker tribute. The groove's pretty modern, and although the tunes are all bop classics - the group (which includes trumpeter Terumasa Hino and pianist Kazuo Yashiro) make the record sound a lot different than the source material.

A really beautiful chapter in the career of reedman Sadao Watanabe - a batch of mostly original compositions, as you might guess from the title - and a double-length record that really showed an evolution of his talents! The sound is often highly lyrical - with Watanabe blowing alto, soprano sax, and flute in modes that are clearly informed by his bossa nova recordings of the late 60s, but which also spring forth in even more complicated styles - with echoes of French soundtracks, European jazz, and other sweet styles of the time. The group's a small one - with Yoshiaki Masuo on guitar, Kazuo Yashiro on acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes, Masabumi Kikuchi on piano, Yoshio Suzuki on bass, and Fumio Watanabe on drums.

A record as evocative as its title - part of a great flowering of talent from Japanese reedman Sadao Watanabe at the end of the 60s! Sadao started his career out as a hell of a bopper, then moved into some sweet Brazilian modes in the 60s - but by the time of this record, he was really emerging with a great vision of his own - a way of opening up in these longer, more lyrical ways on alto, soprano sax, and flute - with styles that were very different than any American or European players of the time!
There's less of the echoes of the Japanese folk roots that Watanabe tried out a few years before - as his tone and timing is much more sophisticated, with a really tremendous sense of melody - and a way of bringing in rich feelings without ever getting too sentimental - almost at the best sort of soundtrack scoring level…

Sadao Watanabe has been disappointing on more than a few occasions. In fact, some of his more commercial, radio-oriented efforts have been quite forgettable. But when he's playing from the heart instead of pandering to commercial radio, Watanabe can be captivating. An adventurous "inside/outside" post-bop date employing Chick Corea (acoustic & electric piano), Miroslav Vitous (upright bass), and Jack De Johnette (drums), Round Trip is one of his finest accomplishments. There's nothing even remotely predictable about this CD, which ranges from the Celtic-influenced, Weather Report-ish "Pastoral" to the contemplative "Nostalgia" to the insistent, 20-minute "Round Trip: Going and Coming." Best known for his Charlie Parker-influenced alto playing, an especially inspired Watanabe sticks to the soprano sax and flute this time.