Maki Asakawa - Maki Asakawa

A stunning survey of the 1970s heyday of this great Japanese singer and countercultural icon.Deep-indigo, dead-of-night enka, folk and blues, inhaling Billie Holiday and Nina Simone down to the bone.A traditional waltz abuts Nico-style incantation; defamiliarised versions of Oscar Brown Jr and Bessie Smith collide with big-band experiments alongside Shuji Terayama; a sitar-led psychedelic wig-out runs into a killer excursion in modal, spiritual jazz.Existentialism and noir, mystery and allure, hurt and hauteur.With excellent notes by Alan Cummings and the fabulous photographs of Hitoshi Jin Tamura.