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Formed in March 1993 by Yoichi Murata for a Shinjuku Pit Inn’s event “Tribute to Gil Evans” with his contemporary musicians closely associated with the club. In the first years from their birth they called themselves Monday Night Orchestra, playing mostly their re-arrangements of Gil Evans related compositions. They gradually started to build their own original repertoire written by Murata and changed the name to Yohichi Murata Orchestra. The members of the orchestra are all colleagues since the ‘80s when the Shinkjuku Pit Inn was a jazz hive in the back street of the Kinokuniya bookstore. As each of them went on to play various kinds of music in the ‘90s, the sound of the orchestra has inevitably developed into a highly mixed individual sound that goes beyond the category of jazz.

Not being a typical big band, the orchestra has 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, and 3 saxophones in the brass section, with occasional addition of a French horn or a tuba. They play mostly from notated arrangements, but there are moments of spontaneous improvisation that gives the sound of the orchestra full flexibility.

This is the monumental first recording of a “live” band that has played around the Shinkjuku Pit Inn for many years. Very naturally this is an all-live recording. Leader/composer/arranged/trombonist Yohichi Murata plays keyboards also to add more depth to the ensemble.