Ack Phhht!

My wife has been excited for months about Japanese saxophone player Sadao Watanabe’s three night stand at Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Exactly what her excitement means I couldn’t tell you – is he a household name in Japan? does my wife have a deep knowledge of Japanese jazz? – but I’m always up for a jazz show.

Truth be told, I don’t really know anything about jazz. And I went into the show knowing even less about Watanabe, other than the fact that … well, he’s a Japanese saxophone player. When his band took the stage, I was a little concerned by the line-up – keyboard, electric bass, electric guitar, drums, and percussion, in addition to Watanabe’s saxophone, not really my type of combo as I like horns and fear fusion. And when the set started with a wash of synthesizers and some pleasant soft tones from Watanabe, my stomach clenched up in fear that we were in for a night of smooth jazz. But then the band broke into a hard tight funk beat, Watanabe started playing away, and I knew everything was going to be alright.

Watanabe remarked that, due to sponsorship by Japanese airline ANA, he was able to bring his whole band over from Japan, instead of touring with L.A. session musicians. This was indeed a great thing, as the band was fantastic, highlighted by Senegalese percussion player N’diasse Niang – who had several showcases for his amazing playing (sabar drums, perhaps?) – and pianist Akira Onozuka. It was quite late in the set that I realized how great drummer Masaharu Ishikawa was, overshadowed by Niang but always keeping up with some hard-hitting playing of his own.

Watanabe himself occasionally was overshadowed by the band, but he seemed content to let them run off without him (perhaps it’s a sign of his 75 years, and he needed periodic breathers to get his wind back). But his tone was beautiful, and when he started playing he took control, with some impressive passages. The range of material was quite broad, as befitting an artist who had been playing professionally since the 1950′s (and had, according to the All Music Guide, been hopping between jazz and pop records for almost as long), which meant the occasional detour into areas that were less interesting to me. But the vast majority of the set list was great, and it ended on a high note, with a blazing full-band rendition of “Life Is All Like That” (the only song whose name I caught), followed, as an encore, with Watanabe and Onozukplaying a lovely ballad as a duet.

UPDATE: My wife and I picked up a copy of Basie’s at Night after the show, which features Watanabe’s band running through a similar set at Basie’s in Japan in 2007.  You can read my review of the album here.