More Japanese fusion with Kazumasa Akiyama in 3 albums

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Dieter Reith's Join Us 1979 by request

I posted the Love and Fantasy album here which I thought was magnificent. His discogs bio is quite extensive:

Dieter Reith (February 25, 1938 - April 1, 2020) was a German jazz pianist, organist, arranger, and composer. Born in Mainz, Germany, he embarked on his musical journey at an early age, commencing piano lessons in 1945. His dedication to music led him to the jazz scene, where he made a notable impact. After completing his education, which included studies in musicology and experimental physics, he joined the SWF Big Band in 1961, becoming its pianist until 1971. Reith's talent and versatility also led him to serve as the organist for Peter Herbolzheimer's Rhythm Combination & Brass from 1970 to 1976.

In 1973, Dieter Reith relocated to Stuttgart, where he played a pivotal role in directing the SWR Big Band and the SWR Radio Orchestra for various productions. He was not only a prolific musician but also an accomplished arranger, contributing his skills to numerous TV projects, radio productions, and recording sessions. One of his notable achievements was his work on the television show "Verstehen Sie Spaß?" where he conducted the accompanying SWR Big Band from 1980 to 2002.

Throughout his career, Reith collaborated with a distinguished array of jazz luminaries, including Stan Getz, Jean-Luc Ponty, Art Farmer, Frank Rosolino, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Kenny Clarke, Philip Catherine, Benny Bailey, Slide Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, Toots Thielemans, and Herb Geller. Dieter Reith's contributions to jazz and music continue to be celebrated, and he left an enduring legacy in the world of music. He passed away on April 1, 2020, in Stuttgart, Germany, but his musical influence lives on.

On the whole this is a bit more disappointing, more generic, less composed, than the other effort posted long ago. For ex., the title track which starts it off:

Makoto Matsushita in 4 albums

From discogs:

Japanese multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, lyricist and vocalist.

Born November 16, 1955.

In these albums he presents his commercial pop side with vocal tracks, quite different from the roughly contemporaneous Paradigm Shift which he had compositional credits on and which were far more in the progressive direction.  From the first 1981 album, First Light, the track called Sunset gives you an idea and the whole album, despite the genre or style descriptions all over the place on discogs, has neither jazz-funk nor prog rock on it:

That first album is without a doubt the strongest.

The track called Recollection from the later album called Visions documents how he moved into the ambient new agey electronic sphere later on:

S. Nakamura next in in Paradigm Shift, in 3 albums (1985 to 1989)

Not much info on the discogs page here.  The genre / style for the first ST album is described as "Electronic, Rock, Ambient, Synth-pop, Abstract, AOR" in reality, it's progressive fusion with electronic additions throughout, similar perhaps to the later 1980s Omura albums just posted, or the later Kazumi Watanabe albums like To Chi Ka or even old favourite Fukamachi in his 80s cartoon or video game related phase, like on Queen Emereldus. 

There is a nice alternation between more high energy dissonant King Crimson-derived riffing and gentler piano pieces, for ex. consider this sample from the first album called Nostalgia which let's admit it is almost as good as material by our great master Jun Fukamachi, especially with the application of synth elements on top of acoustic piano:

 

Incidentally note that the composer is the keyboardist called Makoto Matsushita.

Here and there we also encounter vocal tracks with some pop or commercial leanings, understandably.

Actually all 3 of the releases are worth hearing with only a little dip in quality for the last one which came in 1989.  

The second album has the lovely title of "The Rain Child and the River King" sounding a bit like a fairy tale. But again on discogs the genre description sounds totally mixed up.

The track inappropriately called The Naked Girl with the Fever Drum really blew me away and hopefully yourself too, that descending chromatic riff and the furious fast energy they employ in slamming it out is just mindboggling, as well note the middle passage with the KC-like spacey sounds:

From the third and last, it's obvious they take music composition seriously from the track called "Etude #1, Water Lily:"

Satoshi Nakamura and Splaash, 1979

 

Another band with K. Omura in it, another smooth fusion release. Discogged here.

Regarding S. Nakamura:

Saxophone & keyboard player / producer / arranger. Guest musician with the Japanese group Paradigm Shift. Born 16 September 1954 in Saitama, Japan.

Like the preceding post, very smooth and accessible stuff for what it's worth, only one LP from this grouping from 1979.

Sample track, One of a kind: