Eiji Kitamura - April Date (1979)

Although eventually phased out by the saxophone within jazz, nothing could replace the elegance of the clarinet – and Eiji Kitamura (北村英治) is a true credit to the instrument. Born in Tokyo in 1929, the phenomenal clarinetist has put out many records and performed at various western jazz festivals, most notably the Monterey Jazz Festival which he has attended several times. ’April Date’ is a fine example of Kitamura’s talent. The album was recorded across two days, 14th and 18th April, in 1979 and released that same year by CBS/Sony. I discovered Kitamura through the posthumous album ’Farewell’ by Fumio Nanri (which I uploaded here: Some tracks would have a very distinguishable woodwind sound that added a sense of warmth and classiness, which is especially prevalent in the track “Indiana“. This sound, I would later discover, was the clarinet of Eiji Kitamura. As I searched for Kitamura’s music online, I’d find myself in a similar situation to when I was trying to find some of Nanri’s work: all that’s available is mostly a few singles. There were a couple of his albums on YouTube thankfully, ’Teddy Wilson Meets Eiji Kitamura’ (1970) and ’Seven Stars’ (1982), both of which I enjoy very much. However an artist of Kitamura’s calibre should have plenty more music available for consumption on the internet, so as with Nanri’s ’Farewell’, I hit up Discogs to see if I could get my hands (and ears) on more of Eiji’s work. ’April Date’ caught my eye with its nice album cover and the fact it was released relatively soon after ’Farewell’. I ordered myself a near-mint condition copy, and after a good wait, the record finally arrived from Japan. Kitamura and his American ensemble (which notably includes John Lewis) give us a spectacular performance with ’April Date’, covering a good variety of tracks throughout. We get everything from a lively rendition of Duke Ellington’s famous “Take The ’A’ Train“, to a very sombre and heartfelt interpretation of John Lewis’ own “Django“. Like ’Farewell’, it appears as though this album was only pressed to vinyl once and never reissued, which is a shame considering how such a beautiful album could eventually be lost to time if not suitably archived. My copy arrived in seemingly near-mint condition as promised, however there were unfortunately a few prominent clicks near the beginning of the first track, and a few minor ones later on in the record. After recording into Audacity with my A2D phono stage, I got to work on cleaning up the audio. Most clicks are now either dampened, or completely removed altogether, leaving us with a near-perfect listening experience. I hope you enjoy this amazing album by the talented Eiji Kitamura. I would like to acquire and share more work from his extensive, yet obscure discography in the future. [Originally uploaded 31/12/2020, this is a reupload I made after noticing the sound quality could be further improved in Audacity, by removing a few more clicks that I missed the first time around.] Tracklist: 00:00 Delaunay’s Dilemma 04:35 Just Friends 09:07 Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West 14:52 Take The “A“ Train 21:37 Cavendish 25:18 Body And Soul 29:25 Django 33:53 I Cover The Waterfront 37:17 Confirmation Performers: Clarinet – Eiji Kitamura Piano – John Lewis Bass – George Duvivier Drums – Shelly Manne