LOVEPLAYDANCE: 8 Scenes From the Floor, Toshio Matsuura Group [Brownswood Recordings, 2018]

Every week on our mini breakfast show, Morning Mari*, we choose an album of the week. This week, LOVEPLAYDANCE by Toshio Matsuura Group is in the spotlight.

Toshio Matsuura is a Tokyo based DJ and producer and co-founder of United Future Organisation (U.F.O), whose track ‘Loud Minority’ was a cornerstone of Japan’s acid jazz scene. For this album, Matsuura has teamed up with drummer, Tom Skinner (Sons of Kemet and Owiny Sigoma band), who acts as the record’s musical director.

With a wide scope of sounds, the album focuses on reworking a number of classic tracks, putting them in a new context. ‘I Am the Black Gold of the Sun’ gets a Cuban twist with the vocal stylings of Daymé Arocena. ‘Kitty Bey’, originally by Byron Morris and Unity, is injected with a new energy by the likes of Yussef Dayes, Yazz Ahmed and Nubya Garcia.

Out on Brownswood Recordings, the album continues Gilles Peterson’s musical connection with Japan. It brings together some the UK’s most acclaimed jazz musicians with a legend of Japan’s new musical vanguard of the early ‘90s.

Toshio Matsuura, presents a fortnightly two-hour program on Worldwide FM, WW Tokyo. On this WW Tokyo Edition, Toshio played tunes which inspired him to produce “LOVEPLAYDANCE”.

Tracklist
1. Change
2. High Noon
3. L.M. II
4. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun
5. Kitty Bey
6. Brown Paper Bag
7. Do The Astral Plane
8. At Les

Personel:
Tom Skinner (Drums)
Tom Herbert (Double Bass, Bass Guitar & Chorus)
Danalogue (Synthesiser, Piano & Chorus)
Yazz Ahmed (Eclipse Trumpets / Flugelhorns & Chorus)
Nubya Garcia (Tenor Saxaphone & Flute)
Mansur Brown (Guitar)
Crispin “Spry” Robinson (Percussion)
Yuseff Dayes (Drums)
Dayme Arocena (Vocals)
Jorge Luis Lagarza Perez (Piano)
Rafael Aidana (Bass)
Raul Herrera Martinez (Drums)
Robert Gallagher (Vocals)