Akira Ishikawa

Drum Classic Drum (ドラム運命ドラム, literally "Drum Fate Drum") is a 1971 album by Akira Ishikawa (1934-2002), the Japanese jazz drummer and bandleader best known for the jazz-rock of Electrum and the Afro-inspired records he made with his Count Buffaloes, African Rock and Uganda. Issued by Crown in 1971 (GW-5189), the same year as his Drums Concerto, it takes ten of the most familiar themes of the classical repertoire and recasts them around the drum kit.

The programme reads like a greatest hits of the concert hall: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony ("Fate"), the "Pastoral" Sixth, Schubert's "Unfinished", Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto Op. 35, Dvořák's "New World" Symphony, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto Op. 64, the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth, the "Emperor" Concerto and Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen.

Ishikawa came up in the Tokyo jazz scene of the 1950s and 60s, playing with Shin Matsumoto, Toshiyuki Miyama's New Herd and many studio sessions, before recording under his own name from 1969. This CD is the 2007 Japanese reissue on Bridge (Bridge-086), remastered and in a limited edition.