BBE has already released some excellent jazz from Japan in the past few years and this high quality 2CD compilation strengthens the argument that the country has a wealth of hidden talent beyond the iconic figures of Sadao Watanabe and Terumasa Hino. This is the second installment of music from compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden and there are some fine examples of local artists personalising the myriad vocabularies that were available to the post-Coltrane generation – wistful modal ballads, explosive orchestral swing and stripped-down, unplugged funk, all enhanced by strong soloing. Names such as Teru Sakamoto, Koshuke Mine, Hiroshi Matsumoto and Nobuo Hara definitely deserve wider recognition, while the meeting of pianist Makoto Terashita and American tenor saxophone legend Harold Land is a great symbol of cross-cultural collaboration where the musicians tune into the same source.