Masabumi Kikuchi

Renowned for his stature in jazz circles, Japanese pianist Masabumi "Poo" Kikuchi amassed an expansive discography embracing post-bop, classical elements, fusion, new age, and dub. Over the years he collaborated on tours and sessions with a wide array of musicians such as Paul Motian, Gil Evans, Terumasa Hino, and Sadao Watanabe. Early in the 1970s he issued the fusion projects Poo-Sun and Susto while simultaneously exploring avant-garde and experimental territory on 1971's Poesy: The Man Who Keeps Washing His Hands and delivering straight-ahead jazz statements like 1973's Hollow Out alongside Elvin Jones and the following year's East Wind. During the 1980s he helped establish the Tethered Moon trio with Paul Motian and Gary Peacock, and he also produced six ambient solo synthesizer albums for Geronimo Records in 1988. The 1990s brought a sequence of well-received trio releases, among them 1993's Miles Mode, 1995's Plays Kurt Weill, and Plays Jimi Hendrix+ in 1998. At the start of the twenty-first century he recorded two albums for Verve—the solo efforts Melancholy Girl and After Hours, Vol. 2—while maintaining an active role in Paul Motian's Trio 2000 and sharing billing on four numbered releases with Slash Trio. His ECM trio debut, Sunrise, appeared in 2012, and the label later issued the posthumous solo concert recording Black Orpheus in 2016. Redhook presented Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recordings in 2021, drawn from a pair of 2013 solo piano sessions captured in New York City.

Born in Tokyo during October 1939, Kikuchi trained at the Tokyo Art College High School and promptly assembled his own trio upon graduation. Shortly thereafter he secured a place in Hampton's Japanese touring ensemble. His first appearance on record as a jazz pianist occurred in 1963 on Toshiko Akiyoshi and Charlie Mariano's East & West. He also contributed piano to composer Toru Takemitsu's soundtrack for a Masahiro Shinoda film. In 1966 he joined Watanabe on the saxophonist's Jazz & Bossa date, which featured iconic drummer Masahiko Togashi. The year 1967 marked a particularly active stretch: Kikuchi participated in no fewer than five albums with Watanabe and Mariano and performed with Japan's Swing All Stars. The next year, amid additional session work, he and trumpeter Hino launched the Hino-Kikuchi Quintet, whose self-titled debut earned widespread domestic praise.

Around the same period the pianist entered a Down Beat magazine competition for overseas musicians and received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in the United States. Prior to departing he accompanied Rollins on piano during the saxophonist's Japanese tour. Kikuchi returned to Japan in 1969; in 1970 he appeared on Peacock's landmark Eastward album. He soon assembled his own sextet and recorded Matrix that same year, marking his first release under his own name to receive international distribution and remaining one of his signature works. Also issued in 1970, Poo-Sun reflected the influence of Miles Davis' contemporaneous group. In total the sextet produced seven albums that year, two of them in tandem with Watanabe's band; Kikuchi additionally appeared on Hozan Yamamoto's Silver World alongside Peacock.

Throughout the 1970s Kikuchi maintained a busy schedule as both sideman and leader, recording and touring with Mal Waldron, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Gil Evans, and Peacock while cutting two duet albums with Togashi—the singular Japanese vanguard jazz statements Poesy: The Man Who Keeps Washing His Hands (1971) and Song for Myself (1974). His non-sextet leader dates from the decade included A Short Story for Image Hairpin Circus (1972), East Wind (1974), Wishes/Kochi (1976, featuring Reggie Lucas, Steve Grossman, Mtume, Dave Liebman, and Al Foster from Davis' circle), and the solo But Not for Me (1978). Earlier in the decade he had befriended Davis, who remained in contact during his retirement; the pair taped an album together in 1978 that ultimately went unreleased.

The 1980s brought continued experimentation and fresh directions. In 1980 Kikuchi served as pianist for the Gil Evans Orchestra on Listen to the Silence: Live at the Public Theater. He followed with two electric recordings now regarded as essential catalog items, Susto (1980) and One Way Traveller (1981), and he also appeared on Hino's Daydream (1980) and the global hit Double Rainbow (1981). Between 1984 and 1986 he completed eight themed solo synthesizer albums and later recorded the solo acoustic piano date Attached in 1989.

In 1990 he released the Bill Laswell-produced Dreamachine, which included Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis, Bootsy Collins, and Aiyb Dieng among its participants. That same year marked the beginning of his association with Motian and Peacock in Tethered Moon, whose first release was titled First Meeting. In 1991 he recorded another duet with Togashi, Concerto, and a self-titled album with Tethered Moon. Over the course of the 1990s the trio issued five albums in all, including tributes to the music of Jimi Hendrix, Edith Piaf, and Kurt Weill. Kikuchi also documented Miles Mode/P.M.P. with Motian and Marc Johnson (1993), two trio albums with Togashi and Peacock, and Triple Helix with Hino, Togashi, and James Genus (1993). He issued two solo piano standards collections, After Hours (1994) and Love Song (1995). Also in 1995 the Hino-Kikuchi Quintet reconvened for Acoustic Boogie and Moment. In 1996 he recorded another solo standards set, Possessed, and explored new territory with the electric album Raw Material #1, conceived by producer Mitsumasa Yabuki with musicians from Laswell's circle and Brooklyn session players; three remix EPs followed.

Kikuchi entered the new century with the piano duet album Tandem alongside Takeshi Shibuya in 2000, followed immediately by the solo piano recording Melancholy Gil, captured live in a French-style Japanese restaurant. He then completed three critically praised albums with Slash Trio in 2001 and 2002 before rejoining Tethered Moon for Experiencing Tosca in 2004 and embarking on global tours. He participated in the Paul Motian Trio 2000 + Two releases Live at the Village Vanguard, Vols. 1 & 2, alongside Chris Potter, Greg Osby, and Mat Maneri in 2007 and 2008. In 2009 he formed a new trio with Motian and bassist Thomas Morgan; the resulting album Sunrise, produced by Manfred Eicher, appeared in spring 2012. Kikuchi died on July 6, 2015, following a prolonged illness. The following May, ECM issued Black Orpheus as a tribute; the solo concert had been recorded at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall in 2012 during the Sound Live Tokyo Festival.

In April 2021 the independent jazz label Redhook released Hanamichi: The Final Studio Recordings. Captured solo in New York across two days in 2013, the set contained six selections, among them two markedly contrasting treatments of "My Favorite Things," his final rendition of his favorite standard "Summertime," L. Wolfe Gilbert's and Mabel Wayne's "Ramona," the original "Little Abi," and an improvisation.