Samurai – a Japanese group led by vocalist/flautist Miki Curtis. They went to Europe in late 1967, picking up some European members and thus becoming half-Japanese. In London they recorded a single and their debut album, the double-LP [so I’m told] ‘Samurai’ a.k.a. ‘Miki Curtis & Samurai’ [German Metronome, 1970], as well as a single only released in Italy. They should not be confused with the UK group of the same name, who released a self-titled LP on Greenwich in 1971.
Their second album, ‘Green Tea’ [Philips, 1970], is as far as I can tell simply a single-LP repackaging of the debut only released in Japan, to where the band had returned. The last album that I know of is ‘Kappa’ [Philips, 1971]. The band played a varied kind of psychedelic progressive rock, occasionally a bit hard-rocking, with jazzy and exotic Asian touches. They’ve been compared by Vernon Joyson to Andwella’s Dream and early Traffic. The music on their first album [the only one I’ve heard] is fairly accessible, but without at all sacrificing quality or creativity. On ‘Kappa’ they reputedly played lengthier tracks with more of a heavy progressive leaning. ‘Samurai’/’Green Tea’ [single LP version] was reissued on CD by P-Vine. The bass player, Tetsu Yamauchi, was later in Friends [see above], Free and The Faces, as well as pursuing a brief solo career. Drummer Yujin Harada was later in the last incarnation of Far East Family Band [see above]. Graham Smith, credited on harmonica on the first 2 albums, is probably the same person who later played violin in String Driven Thing and Van Der Graaf. http://www.recordheaven.net/japan.htm
1 - Trauma (10:18)2 - Same Old Reason (2:49)
3 - Daredatta (3:38)
4 - Vision Of Tomorrow (3:52)
5 - King Riff And Snow Flakes (22:28
Line-up
- Miki Curtis: Vocals, Flute
- Joe Dunnet: Guitar
- Yamauchi Tetsuo: Bass
- Harada Yuji: Drums
- John Redfern: Organ
- Hiro Izumi: Guitar, Koto
- Mike Walker: Vocals, Piano
- Graham Smith: Harmonica
2 - Same Old Reason ...
Link for download "Samurai - 1971 - Kappa" in comments ...
13 comments:
Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzvaso
Excellent post! Thank you!
JB
I can't believe how much excellent music you folks regularly post to this site, which is one of my favorite blogs that I almost every day. It's not only the excellent music, but taking the time to post information about the artists or the album also. I don't know if others appreciate how much work that takes, but I do, and thank you very much!
hello my name is joe dunnett i've just found this site i wrote ,sang and played guitar on this album brings back some great memories sad about john ,tetsu where are you .
Good album fo psych/prog, but a typical first release: excess of ideas on excess of non-sense jam sessions. Green Tea is better. But it worths knows this.
hello Joe Dunnett ,This is Koto I met you when I was in Germany long time ago.
Are you still with Liz Long?
I remember we used to listen to this album.
Hi koto yes i rember you ,i havent seen liz for over 30 years have you seen tetsu
Anyone know what Yujin Harada is doing now?
Thanks for posting and I really appreciate your brilliant work on this blog!
Hello Joe Dunnett.
Please, please contact me - its with regards to my close friend John Redfern.
peter dot swaine at skynet dot be
Joe Dunnett - this is Helga. Angie (remember her?) We are still best friends and she visited me in Brighton last October. We talked about old times and you were mentioned :) ...
joe dunnett....this is mike walker. how they hangin', pal? there's no dates on these posts, so it could've been 10 years ago. if you see this, e-mail me: walktalker@gmail.com
the link is invalid now :(
Post a Comment