Minoru Muraoka?

It looks like there is a digital recording he did with Herbie Mann on Amazon. I'm sure you already saw that, I just bought it, I like it.

Minoru Muraoka was part of the Tokyo Sanjusodan (Tokyo Trio) along with Katsuya Yokoyama and Kohachiro Miyata. I believe he mainly played 7-hole shakuhachi, although he also _made_ some very good standard 5-hole shakuhachi. I've played at least one. As I remember our fellow member Yu-Jin had that flute. Look him up on komuso.com and Google him.

If you check him out on amazon.co.jp you have quite a few CDs to buy for much less money:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_ja_JP=カタカナ&url=search-ali…

Thanks for the link Kiku. Time to go shopping!

I ended up ordering a couple from CDJapan. Much more reasonable shipping to the States.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/search3.html?q=Minoru Muraoka&media=&r=any…

Tell us about the CDs when you get them, please

Will do.

I received the 2 CDs I ordered from CDJapan a couple weeks ago. They were Harlem Nocturne and This Is Modern Shakuhachi Vol. 2. Both of these recordings date back to the late '60s/ early 70s and consist mainly of jazz standards. The two types of music I listen to the most these days are shakuhachi and lounge music and these two CDs are a great merging of the two Muraokas playing is excellent as are the other musicians he plays with. I am getting much use out of these two CDs.

I also went searching on Yahoo Japan Auctions and was able to get 4 other discs that are out of print. Shakuhachi no Shirabe and volumes 1-3 of Hotobashiru Gendai Shakuhachi. These are all much more recent recordings dating from the 90s. Not so much Jazz now, but explorations of folk songs from around the world, Enka covers and other modern pieces. On of the modern pieces, 時には母のない子のように, I think Brian would like in particular. It is a duet between Shakuhachi and bass.

I have on other recording that I found on the internet. It is a digitized version of a live recording that has not been available on CD. This by far is the best of the bunch. It was recorded in the early 70's and is absolutely astounding. The album was called The Osorezan Suite. Hopefully someday this will be made available in a proper release.

I should also mention that between all of these recordings there are 3 versions of Take Five. I am usually not a fan of anyone other then Dave Brubeck doing this song, but these 3 versions are all right up there in quality.