[Dixielandjazz] Jazz - what else?

[Marek Boym]

Hello folks,
How many of you have heard of Eiji Hanaoka?
Probably not too many.  As his name suggests, Mr. Hanaoka is Japanese.
 And extremely good.  How good?  Good enough to hold his own while
playing with Bob Wilber - not a mean feat for a clarinet player!
I heard hi, and other Japanese musicians, in a wonderfully swinging
session at the Breda Jazz Festival.  I was very excited, so much so
that I bought the CD of Japanese musicians, having been told they were
the same, for a friend.  While I was disappointed to see that the
excellent Japanese guitarist Nagome Sakuma was not on it (my friend is
a great guitar fan), the other musicians were.
since Mr. Hanaoka has participated in numerous Breda festivals, at
least some of ou might have heard of him.  But how many of you have
heard of Tetsu Shimoma?  His feature- Stars Fell on Alabama - alone is
worth the admission price!
The CD in question - "Hot Jazz Special, vol. 1 - Eiji Meets Brooks"
(that's the drummer Brooks Tegler) is really great, and features
musicians not very well known outside Japan.  Unfortunately, other
than tune titles, names of musicians and recording data, the liner
notes are in Japanese, which is not my strongest point.
Cheers