MIKE PEDEN Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Since launching two years ago, Tony Higgins and Mike Peden's J-Jazz series has become an indispensable guide to Japan's modern jazz scene. The third volume continues in a similar vein to its predecessors, gathering together sought-after, overlooked and little-known cuts from across the jazz spectrum (think spiritual, modal, fusion, post-bop and Latin), all of which were recorded by Japanese artists in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. The standard of music is, somewhat predictably, breathtakingly high throughout, with highlights including the weighty post-modal bop of Koshuke Mine's 'Morning Tide', the sun-kissed Brazil-inspired brilliance of Hideo Shiraki's 'Groovy Samba', and a string of funk-fuelled, dancefloor-friendly workouts from Hiroshi Murakami & Dancing Sphynx, Shigeharu Muka and the Ryojiro Furusawa Quartet.

Review: BBE latest "deep dive" into a widely underappreciated style focuses on a particularly fertile period in the history of Japan's "contemporary jazz" scene. Curated by renowned Japanese jazz diggers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, J-Jazz focuses on material recorded and released between 1969 and '84, a period the label says represents a "golden age" for jazz in Japan. The compilation is both a serious history lesson and hugely enjoyable to listen to, featuring a mixture of U.S-influenced jazz-funk, fusion, post-modal and deep, spiritual improvisations. Naturally, all of the material has never been released outside of Japan before, with the vast majority of tracks being either ludicrously rare or sought-after. Simply essential, all told.