Road Makoto Ozone feat. No Name Horses

• 1Big Band Symphonic Poem "Road"36:42
• 2Rhapsody In Blue29:59
• 3Jean Pierre08:06
• Total Runtime01:14:47

Info for Road

No Name Horses, a big band led by world-renowned pianist Makoto Ozone, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025 with three new members (Shutaro Matsui, Yu Riku and Shinpei Ogawa), and start to move into the next generation! NNH was formed in 2005 at the urging of Ozone and has released six albums.

NNH has released six albums to date and continues to evolve and challenge itself as a unique big band with its advanced ensemble, diverse original compositions, and endless creativity and playfulness. In addition to the talented new members of the next generation, Marshall Gilks will join the band as a special member for this performance. This is a project befitting of the anniversary of the band's strongest 15 members. The numbers embody the royal road of big band music, and you can't afford to miss this new step forward by these genre-breaking horses.

Makoto Ozone, piano, Fender Rhodes
Eric Miyashiro, trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet
Sho Okumura, trumpet, flugelhorn
Akira Okumura, trumpet, flugelhorn
Shutaro Matsui, trumpet, flugelhorn
Yoshiro Okazaki, trumpet, flugelhorn
Eijiro Nakagawa, trombone
Marshall Gilkes, trombone
Junko Yamashiro, bass trombone
Kazuhiko Kondo, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piccolo flute
Masanori Okazaki, alto saxophone
Atsushi Ikeda, alto saxophone
Toshio Miki, tenor saxophone
Yu Kuga, tenor saxophone
Yoshihiro Iwamochi, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet
Shinpei Ogawa, double bass
Shinnosuke Takahashi, drums

Makoto Ozone
Brought up in a musical rich environment, Makoto Ozone taught himself organ at a very young age. He first appeared on TV at the age of six and was performing regularly on Osaka Mainichi Broadcasting. Ozone turned his attention towards jazz piano at the age of twelve, after attending an Oscar Peterson concert. He moved to the United States in 1980 to study jazz composition and arranging at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1983, Ozone graduated at the top of his class and gave a solo recital at the Carnegie Hall, and became the first Japanese musician to sign an exclusive contract with CBS.

In 1983 he joined vibraphonist Gary Burton's quartet and has since toured the world extensively with them. In addition to composing for and playing with Gary Burton, Ozone has also worked with many other top international jazz musicians including Chick Corea, Ellis Marsalis and Branford Marsalis.

In 2004, he formed the "No Name Horses" big band in Japan. The band has been performing successfully in France, Austria, the US, the UK, Singapore and Japan ever since.

In recent years, Ozone has been performing works from the classical music repertoire. Under internationally known conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Thomas Zehetmair, Joseph Swensen, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Arie van Beek, Francois-Xavier Roth, Tadaaki Otaka, Eiji Oue and Michiyoshi Inoue, he has played concertos by Gershwin, Bernstein, Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich, in collaboration with the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris (former Ensemble orchestral de Paris), the Orchestre d'Auvergne, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the NHK Symphony Orchestra , etc.

In 2003, on a commission from the famous playwright Hisashi Inoue, Ozone performed and conducted his own composition, a piano concerto titled “Mogami.” In 2006, he was invited to the “Chopin and His Europe” International Festival in Warsaw. In 2008, Ozone performed with the NDR Sinfonieorchester at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. In 2010, Ozone released “Road to Chopin,” an album dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth. His 2012 highlight is a trio tour in Japan with the prestigious jazz masters Christian McBride and Jeff "Tain" Watts. In 2013, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his world debut, he toured with Gary Burton in Japan for a month. In addition to his performing career, Ozone hosts a popular jazz music radio program and writes music for live theater and TV. In 2014, he will tour Asia with New York Philharmonic conducting under the baton of Alain Gilbert (Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, New York/Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue) Same year Makoto made a jazz arrangement of Mozart’s piano concerto No. 9 “Jeunehomme” for Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, performing world premier together in UK.

Among features of his future projects, one can name performance with NDR Radiophilharmonie for subscription concert on May 2014, “The Jazz Orchestra: Bernstein and Gershwin” special concert with San-Francisco Symphony Orchestra and others. Makoto will undertake All-Japan tour with his big band No Name Horses and new CD release dedicated to 10th Anniversary of the band.

Makoto spreads his activity all over the world, performing in such cities as Vienna, New York, Sao Paolo, etc. together with such famous jazz musicians as Gary Burton, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Branford Marsalis, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Christian McBride, Dave Weckl, Mike Stern and others.

He is an often guest in such classical music festivals as Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron in France and La Folle Journee in Nantes and Japan.

He has released several albums on Universal Music including the Grammy nominated "Virtuosi" (2002), a duet album with Burton, “Live & Let Live - Love for Japan” (2010), a charity project for 3.11 earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, and “Time Thread” (2013), his third duo album with Burton.

Ozone is currently a professor at the Kunitachi College of Music.

This album contains no booklet.