The Healing Power of Light and Breezy

The early works of master guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka

The cover art of this one is a dare: On his 1979 compilation LP All of Me, the Japanese pop-fusion guitarist and composer Masayoshi Takanaka appears to be sky diving. He’s left the plane and not yet activated the parachute, and he’s giving the thumbs-up sign with a huge peak-experience grin on his face. It could be a doctored image, but that’s doubtful – this was, after all, the pre-Photoshop era.

We know he survived; Takanaka is active still, with a large catalog that draws intermittent global attention. All of Me gathers highlights from his first four solo efforts, which were made for Japan Kitty between 1976 and 1979. It’s recently been reissued on vinyl by Light in the Attic. (Below is a YouTube link from the highly recommended Terminal Passage channel.)

That smile is not a fake, at any rate. Consider it a portal into the disarmingly warm Takanaka realm, where elements of disco, jazz-rock fusion and instrumental pop find common ground at a secluded beachfront resort. The compositions are very much in sync with the fusion of the late ‘70s: Influences include George Benson (circa Breezin’) and George Duke (circa Brazilian Love Affair), Jeff Beck (the refined pure signal of Blow By Blow) and also the suave string writing of Philadelphia soul.

Still, those citations suggest only the general terrain – they don’t account for Takanaka’s elegantly shaped and endlessly singable melodies, or the earnest, joyful vibe that radiates throughout his music. Many tunes are built on the kind of recurring vamps that were common in the late ‘70s. In other hands, these could get fidgety and cluttered, but Takanaka rarely lets those progressions bog down: Instead, he uses them as springboards for sweeping, octave-leaping guitar declarations and disarmingly melodic improvisations. The samba-leaning pieces, which include a fantasia on themes from Star Wars, revolve around organic percussion; the funk tunes are built from sturdy electric bass riffs.

Compared to much of what’s often celebrated by music journalists, these songs are light little bonbons: This is undemanding music that hails from an era when that was actually enough. Takanaka isn’t making some kind of meta conceptual statement through music. He doesn’t hide behind complexity. He’s chasing an elusive form of glee, a windswept lightness that isn’t always on the menu these days.

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