Makoto Ozone was among the artists who spurred my nascent devotion to jazz in the mid-1980s. I preferred the Japanese pianist’s inviting melodicies to the strident conventionalism of his generational peer Wynton Marsalis amid the infamous jazz scare of that era.
Ozone’s new album For Someone is a recapitulation of everything that makes the Chick Corea acolyte exceptional. For Someone was recorded at Bauer Studios in Germany, a facility frequently employed by ECM Records. Ozone’s affinity for the ECM sound is correspondingly clear.
The immediately appealing “Friends” is precisely the sort of gentle melody that drew me to Ozone forty years ago. Polish vocalist Anna Maria Jopek pushes the proggy fusion of the title track over the top. For Someone closes with a lovely contrafact of Bill Evan’s “Peace Peace.”
The rugged tandem of bassist Shimpei Ogawa and drummer Kunitoshi Kitai consistently steer Ozone away from delicate sentimentality. My appreciation of their decisiveness rewards the intensive jazz studies I initiated forty years ago.