Akira Sakata, marine biologist by training, was the alto in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio from 1972 to 1979, the band that (per the Moers director) got an hour of standing ovation on its first European visit. In 1980 he formed his own trio and toured Japan for three months. Dance is that trio in Europe: Hiroshi Yoshino on bass, Nobuo Fujii on drums, at the Vielharmonie in Munich on 11 June 1981, recorded digitally by Bernhard Mahne for Enja.
Four pieces. Right Frankenstein in Saigne-Légier (thirteen minutes) and Strange Island on side one; on side two Comme à la radio, the Brigitte Fontaine and Areski song, and Inanaki, 2nd. Sakata plays alto saxophone and alto clarinet and sings, in the voice one Bandcamp note describes as coming from a far away time and place.
The record sits between the Yamashita years and Wha-ha-ha, the collective he was also running in Tokyo at the time. It is the one to hear for the alto: the full-tilt attack of the trio records, with Yamashita's piano gone and nothing to lean on.
Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Jazz Master Works series.
