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?