And now some jazz… up next on my ongoing quest to lose half my audience: Yoshio Ohtomo Quartet’s As A Child. I kid, of course. Classifying this under jazz is like classifying Dylan’s latest masterpiece “Murder Most Foul” as rock ‘n’ roll or the multi-layered yeoman tomes of the late John Prine as folk. It’s all jazz. And like all good things, As A Child is this sublime piece of immediate music like Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life, joyful incantations to the beauty that is living through yet another day in touch with that precious commodity in this world: love.
Released in 1978, under Japan’s Seven Seas label, few would know then that As A Child would in fact be Yoshio Otomo’s (original spelling preserved) final recorded testament before he’d moved on elsewhere, joining the ranks of session and live performance musicians doing the great unheralded work of adding the cherry on top of others music. Here, though, we find this genius saxophonist from Tokyo in full flight, taking inspiration from spiritual jazz and running it through the prism of that reflective state of his life.
Yoshio began his career in the early ‘60s after transitioning from an early study in clarinet and piano to learning/mastering the alto saxophone at Tokyo’s Nihon University College of Arts. Fumio Itabashi, of Nature fame, would give him his first pro gig as a member of Itabashi’s short-lived jazz quintet. A not-so-brief stint in America studying at Berklee’s College of Music would find him catch the eye of renowned J-Jazz giant Sadao Watanabe who would spur him to come soon enough to Japan and create his own band, signing with Japan’s now iconic Three Blind Mice jazz label (early home of Isao Suzuki, Kimiko Kasai, and many others).
Known for his emotional “crying sax” sound, it was Yoshio who’s roots in bop jazz fused with the new school/soul influenced music other label mates were creating. Otomo contributed to his first Three Blind Mice masterpiece, the Takashi Mizuhashi Quartet’s quite meaningful reimaginings of soul standards on Live In “5 Days In Jazz 1974” – When A Man Loves A Woman, while joining up with fellow sax-brother-in-arms Hidefumi Toki a year later to create the hard-as-nails bop jazz of Lover Man. Just a year later Yoshio would go on that path leading him to As A Child.
Working under the quartet format with an additional drummer, keyboardist, and bassist, Yoshio would create a recording and performing band to explore a more spiritual sound. Oh! Friends kicked it off with Fumio Watanabe on drums, Satoshi Kosugi on bass, and Junichiro Ohguchi manning the keys. This debut as leader showed he had something new to add to the scene. By the time of As A Child Yoshio Otomo’s quartet had morphed into this final lineup that would include two relative unknowns — Yoshino Akiyoshi on drums and Toshiyuki Sekine on electric piano — to forge that path towards the brighter, warmer, more meditative sound Yoshio was after.
As pictured on the album cover taken of him with his daughter by his wife, Yoshio had found a meaningful amount of creativity and happiness being able to step back from the rigorous career of being a musician and to simply focus on recording when the mood struck. For three years, Yoshio had purposefully taken a step back from various gigs and became more choosy with his life choices. Out of five songs captured, four would be originals. Songs like the titular track, “As A Child”, speak of mellow moods shifting from contemplative bass and piano ruminations that get broken open, like cracking open a window on a fresh spring day, letting Yoshio and Yoshino bring glorious sonic light into the mix. “Happy Talk” closes the A-side with a wonderful sax workout calling back to Yoshio’s roots in post bop, in a way that shows absolute joy in the music.
The B-side would send us back to this gorgeous nostalgia-inducing jazz that’s wonderfully soft and delicate, in a way that doesn’t exactly scream as being entirely possible to do on an alto…without falling into the schmaltz trap. “In A Spring Little Waltz” kicks it off with a latin/bossa nova-indebted meandering that transforms into another open-hearted spirit of a certain lightness that only the introduction of Yoshio’s sax can bring. Quite lyrical, Yoshio Otomo’s work on As A Child reminds me of Donald Byrd’s in between light descending upon his own work. It just feels as good as it sounds. I mean who can refuse that wonderfully cozy vibe laid down by Toshiyuki and Satoshi, the others are hard pressed to remove those sheets.
The album would end on two tracks: “Sentimental Steps” and a wistful cover of Stevie Wonder’s “All In Love Is Fair”, however, by then, in its “not-so-short-by-’70s-standards” 40 minute run time, As A Child has a way to draw you into its loving world. It’s all layered, yearning, inviting, and just enough to never wear out its welcome. Perfect music to share with others you love the most. You might not love jazz but you’ll all love jazz just like this.