2009 marks the seventieth anniversary of the most famous jazz label in the world, and to mark the occasion Blue Note/EMI Japan invited one of the leading lights of the current Japanese club jazz movement, quasimode, to record an album of interpretations of classic tracks from the label's back catalogue. For this album, only three of the band members are featured, as drummer Takashi Okutsu was absent from this recording, so for this outing his place was filled by Sohnosuke Imaizumi. The album opens with the title track, Mode of Blue, which is the only original on the album, and it's a typical quasimode tune that seems naggingly familiar even on first listen. From then on the band plunder the Blue Note archives and tackle songs originally recorded by the likes of Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Kenny Dorham, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner and Wayne Shorter. The sound is unmistakably quasimode throughout and they do a good job of adapting the tunes to their style. Afrodisia, Congalegre and Sayonara Blues are firmly in a Latin jazz style and will undoubtedly go down well live and get the crowd moving. Other standout tracks for me at this stage are a nicely arranged version of Little B's Poem, featuring Valerie Etienne on vocals, and Ghana. Another strong album from a band clearly enjoying their current success, and the reaction from the fans has been positive too as the album currently tops the jazz charts in Tower, HMV, Amazon Japan and on iTunes Japan. As with their previous releases, it's taken me a couple of listens to get into it, but it will be on the playlist for some time to come.
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