Isao Suzuki - Ako's Dream

1976 recording

One of the wonderfully creative 70s sets from Japanese stringman Isao Suzuki – an artist who also plays bass, but who works here on jazz cello – for a very unusual approach! The set has Suzuki's work on the light strings matched in a combo with lead guitar from Kazumi Watanabe – who's nicely restrained here, and falls in with Isao's strings at a level that's quite different than his own material of the time.

Watanabe's lead is augmented by further rhythm guitar work by Kazumasa Akiyama, and the resulting mix of stringed instruments creates a sound that sounds pretty darn groovy in some parts – lightly leaping along with some Fender Rhodes from Tsuyoshi Yamamoto. The best track is the album's long funky remake of "Feel Like Making Love", which begins with a spacey intro, then leaps into an almost-breakbeat reading of the track that features some great electric piano work in a classic MPS mode