Samurai Spirit - Various Artists - 2 CD set

2011 release

Samurai Spirit, a 2CD compilation, selects from a rich range of Rufus Records’ titles from 1994 to the most current releases. It is a powerful array of music, brought together to support earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan – Rufus Records gives $5 from each sale to Japan Red Cross.

The musicians, mostly from Sydney and Melbourne, with trans—Tasman traveller Roger Manins, and Margie Evans, the remarkable blues, soul and gospel singer from Los Angeles, work at their art with creative discipline and commitment. It is diverse, drawing on jazz, roots and improvising genres, and represents several generations of leading Australian musicians, such as Bern McGann, John Pochée, Bob Bertles and Miroslav Bukovsky; Sandy Evans, Lloyd Swanton, Alister Spence, Warwick Alder and James Greening; Tim Stevens, Andrew Robson, Abel Cross, Adrian Klumpes and Mike Majkowski; to the teenaged drummer Finn Ryan.

Line-ups vary from solo piano, through trios, quartets, quintets to the multi-instrumentalists who make up Ten Part Invention. And many of the bands that have enriched our music scene for many years appear, such as Clarion Fracture Zone, The catholics, Wanderlust, The World According to James, and more recent line-ups Roil, SNAP, Trio Apoplectic, and My Goodness, McGuiness!

In all, over different 100 musicians are represented on the albums featured here. They are one part of a vibrant Australian scene. I’m sure all join in wishing, not for a phoenix rising from the ashes, but for a recovery in Japan that consolidates all that is best and most appealing in Japanese culture.