Scenery

Yess

Nice. Smooth. Great.

Scenery is a jazz album by Japanese pianist Ryo Fukui. It merely contains jazz standards that are performed with skill, but somewhat bland. The the tracks is "Early Summer", though a several minutes long drum solo on an album is a bit too much for me. The only original song is "Scenery". An-in-all an ok album. Nothing really special though.

in that scenery of a jazz early summer, neon lights embrace 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 4 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 3.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 119 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 133 (including this one: a large bulk of its tracklist is focusing on pretty "classical" jazz standards... Nothing overly original on a first listen, but those covers are so elegantly, expertly and precisely played that they become marvellous -- special mention for the conclusion of "Willow Weep For Me". Yet what makes this album one-of-a-kind is the two original compositions in it, mentioned in my haiku up there -- especially the extraordinary "Early Summer". Technically, this piece of music is a cover of another Japanese jazzman I had also never heard of until today, Hideo Ichikawa. Yet Ryo Fukui's version is so different from the original composition you could consider him the real writer of that piece. The man was a terrific piano player -- imaginative and versatile. To the point where he casts a long shadow on the bassist and drummer playing with him, including in the mixing of this record. The user who selected the latter is an open-minded listener also having very good tastes in my book, as their galleries prove. I can firmly disagree with their ratings for some albums here and there, but even without them leaving reviews, I think I can understand what makes them tick when it comes to good music of all stripes. Guess it makes sense that I feel enthusiastic about their submission, then. So thank you for providing me yet another stellar entry point into Japanese jazz. Only eight albums left on the original list for you. Congratulations! See you in the users' list! 🙂) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 289 ---- Ah Émile, je viens de me rendre compte que c'est à moi de répondre ! Je me suis emmêlé les pinceaux sur le suivi des messages cet été, on dirait... Petite question au préalable : tu as rejoint le serveur discord du générateur ? Et si oui, quel est ton pseudo là-bas ? Dis-moi juste ta réponse là-dessus dans ta prochaine review dès que tu vois ce message. Je te réponds ensuite en bonne et due forme dans la foulée (je vérifierai tes reviews tous les jours ou quasi, j'ai moyen de le faire, je suis toujours en vacances...

What is not to like... Very nice. 4/5

Piano jazz from Japan.... 1980 Makes me smile. 4/5

Been digging Japanese jazz at the moment.

Smooth

Beautiful, expressive Jazz LP. Was in the mood for some focused, softer listens today and this hit the mark. Not the most groundbreaking contribution to the genre I've ever heard, but a well-done album nonetheless.

Really excellent. I'd like to hear some of the later work showing the influence of his friendship with and mentorship by Barry Harris.

Just a really solid jazz album. Also a great showcase of how important a great album cover is. If I have my facts straight, this was a very obscure album before it blew up in popularity after getting pushed into a lot of peoples' Youtube recommendations (similarly to another Japanese Jazz album on this list, "Flying Beagle") and the very eye-catching album cover had a lot to do with it getting picked up by the algorithm, I'd say. Truly the most neon red sounding jazz I've ever heard. 4/5.

Nothing revolutionary for 1976, but nice to hear someone keeping jazz alive in Japan in the 70s.

Japanese jazz what's not to like

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: I want to talk about you, Early summer, Autumn leaves

Enjoyable jazz. Early Summer was the standout track for me. Low four stars.

Favorite Track: Early Summer

It's jazz!

It’s fine. It’s wedding cocktail hour innocuous instrumental jazz. What’s all the fuss?

Chilled

Very lounge-y and relaxing jazz music

I dig it. 4 stars.

Scenery pops up constantly on lists and recommendations, and it seems it almost has a status as a bit of a cult-classic. So now after it appeared on this list, I finally sat down with it properly, three listens in total, and I'll be honest, it didn't live up to the reputation for me. I don't really understand all the fuss surrounding this album. The performances of the standards, in particular, are quite bland, fairly cliché and mostly reminded me of better versions elsewhere. Ryo Fukui is clearly technically skilled (especially as an auto-didact who'd only been playing for about 4 years), but his idea of conveying emotion often seems to be pounding on the keys as hard as possible, which gets tiring after about three minutes. It's quite listenable overall, and the rendition of Early Summer is genuinely nice and makes up for some of it. Yoshinori Fukui on drums is amazing. But the Autumn Leaves here is clumsy, and that's a song that's been played to death by better hands.

Yeah, I liked it. Something that would have been great to see live I suspect.

Bopping (post)

Having been ignorant of Japanese jazz, this is good. Smooth and easy.

Jazz. Please, no more.