i'm not sure pandora's cocktail is on a label at all. I bought it at a concert where umezu was playing some short duos with impressing guitarist kido natsuki.
i also have a cd which features his klezmer band, weird stuff, which i bought at least 8 years ago at a third person concert with samm bennett and tom cora. i don't think this klezmer band is still active, but I really don't know. I enjoy the umezu ny-lineup recordings mostly because to my ears the usual suspects like ribot, wollesen, horvitz and jones sound absolutly fresh throughout the whole material. I hope there'll be a follow up some day.
i love umezu's stuff, even without ribot. what label is pandora's cocktail on? i've never heard of that one. i have a few dr. umezu band recordings, and also the Seikatsu Kojo Iinkai Orchestra, a very sun-ra big band insprired group. last i heard (except for the duets with carlo actis dato), he was leading some kind of klezmer band (!), but i have not been able to track down the recording
speaking of ribots funky playing I recently rediscovered kozutoki umezus recordings w/ ribot (eclecticism, first deserter and pandoras cocktail) which are all great. I can recommend these albums to anyone who wants to hear ribot as a sideman pick up a telecaster (if so) in contrast to the zorn sideman stuff. I think pandoras cocktail is very hard to get. It features wollesen, ribot and brad jones playing some cool tunes. ribot plays jazzy solos, twangy notes and umezus playing is entertaining in a very positive way.
So, has anyone seen mr. umezu perform somewhere? Is kiki his current band, what are they like?