Shoji Hano’s Top 10 Albums

Well known in Jazz circles, Shoji Hano is often cited as one of the best free jazz drummers ever to have lived, with power and speed matched by few. Witnessing one of his performances is witnessing great performance art—you might not completely understand it, but you know that he is being driven by a transformative creative power much greater than the sum of the pieces of the performance.

The actual drum becomes almost irrelevant; beats dissolve into a cascade of sound. “Sometimes I’m in three or four different states of mind at the same time when I’m playing,” says Shoji.

Theme caught up with the innovative musician for a hot minute to get a list of his top 10 favorite albums of all time.

1. Caravan, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
When I was in eighth grade, a tenant renting a room in our house heard me messing around with a drum kit. He brought over two albums, Caravan by Art Blakey and a drum-duel album by Max Roach and Buddy Rich. He said, “Keep whichever one you like.” I chose Caravan because it felt right to me, it sounded as if it were speaking directly to my flesh. I didn’t know anything about jazz back then; I chose this album by instinct.

2. Brown and Roach Incorporated, Clifford Brown (trumpet) and Max Roach (drums)
I used to try copying Max Roach’s 32 bar drum solos and would listen to my own version afterwards, but it sounded totally different than what I thought I played like [laughter]. Max Roach and Art Blakey were my biggest influences from high school until I turned 20.

3. Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Monk
Composition, performance, everything on this album is so simple, so effortless. Monk has a special approach to the delivery of the phrases. He sniffs out the vibe in the air, then alters the timing of each note in response. This vibe, or flow of the moment, is akin to what Budoh (Japanese martial artists) calls ma, the state of existence between things. Monk instinctively perceives this ma and incorporates it. In some performances, he would suddenly abandon his piano and burst into dance. On stage he once refused to play at all. Some people said he was genius, others had other responses. In my opinion Monk was great because whatever he did, he was being true to the vibe.

4. Out of the Afternoon, Roy Haynes Quartet
Haynes, a remarkable drummer, came up with a new approach. The typical 4/4 beat was built upon the legato line of the cymbals (in a smooth, even style without any noticeable break between the notes), but Haynes added snare and bass drums to the mix, resulting in the foundation that contains a combination of high and low timbre. He even makes triplets with these three components. It was a truly revolutionary feat.

5. Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan (piano)
Elvin Jones used brushes for the entire album, completely redefining the status quo of brushwork. You rarely find a drummer with such great skill. Art Taylor and Philly Joe Jones were great, but Elvin Jones was the best, bar none.

6. Last Date, Eric Dolphy
The musicians were all Europeans, Dolphy was the only black player. On this album, made shortly before Dolphy passed away, Han Bennink (drums) and Misha Mengelberg (piano) deconstructed the 4/4 beat, which was the staple of European music. Dolphy performs smoothly over this experimental rhythm.

7. Out to Lunch, Eric Dolphy
Around ’77 I visited a friend in Tokyo, a genius sax player name Abe Kaoru. We were both poor but decided to treat ourselves to an “extravagant” dinner with all the money I had, about 1500 yen. When we returned to his apartment, he offered to give me any record from his collection. This was the album I chose. It defines Dolphy’s transition period from bebop to free jazz.

8. New York Art Quartet, Milford Graves (percussion and drums)
This was said to be the revolutionary statement of free jazz. You can definitely hear the sense of ma in his playing. He hits sparsely, mostly just the snares. This minimal style changed the course of jazz music.

9. Satch Plays Fats/A Tribute to the Immortal Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong
When I’d struggle with playing, I used to play along with one of Louis’ records. And I found myself playing with him. The magic is not in adjusting timing by ear or with a metronome. It’s not tuned with your head. It’s tuned with your heart.

10. Body Meta, Ornette Coleman
Bebop came around in the ’40s, modern jazz emerged in the ’50s, the ’60s spawned a new genre called “improvisation,” and then came the electric ’70s. The highly percussive sound on this album defines the intensive transition into the electric period.