Masanaga Harada (原田政長) was one of the busiest bassists on the Tokyo jazz scene between 1960 and 1976. His name is on the Masao Yagi quintet's Masao Yagi Plays Thelonious Monk (1960), which German Wikipedia, citing Robin D. G. Kelley's Monk biography, calls the first LP of Monk compositions made outside the United States. It is also on Sadao Watanabe's debut album (1961), on Toshiko Akiyoshi's homecoming session Toshiko Meets Her Old Pals (1961), on Akira Miyazawa's Yamame (1962) and on the Tokyo records Teddy Wilson made with Eiji Kitamura in 1970 and 1973. Discogs files 140 releases under his name, and German Wikipedia, citing Tom Lord's jazz discography, counts 73 jazz recording sessions between 1960 and 1976.

He was born in Tokyo around 1933, though reference works differ on the year by a couple of years. Little has been published about his early life or training. German Wikipedia places him in the Tokyo jazz scene from the 1950s, and the earliest document of his playing is a 1959 live broadcast with the visiting American clarinettist and baritone saxophonist Tony Scott, the pianist Masao Yagi and the drummer Masahiko Togashi, then about 19. The tape stayed off record until the Studio Songs CD Masahiko Togashi - Tony Scott 1959 appeared in 2015.

The Tokyo rhythm section of the 1960s

Yagi's Monk album was recorded on July 13 and 14, 1960 at Bunkyo Public Hall in Tokyo, with Sadao Watanabe on alto saxophone, Akira Nakano on trumpet and Sadakazu Tabata on drums. A year later Harada was in the quintet on Watanabe's first full-length record (King SKC 8, recorded August 15 and 16, 1961), with Kazuo Yashiro on piano, and on Toshiko Akiyoshi's Toshiko Meets Her Old Pals, recorded in March 1961 at Suginami and Bunkyo public halls, where he shares the bass chair with Hachiro Kurita. On Yamame (King KC 20, recorded May 1962) the credits list three musicians named Harada: the baritone saxophonist Tadayuki Harada, Masanaga on bass and the drummer Kanji Harada. Discogs files them as three separate people.

In February 1964 he was one of six names on the cover of Jazz Inter-session (King SKJ-1058), a sextet date with the American altoist Charlie Mariano, tenor saxophonist Hidehiko Matsumoto, trumpeter Akira Fukuhara, Masao Yagi on piano and Hideo Shiraki on drums. Charlie Mariano and Watanabe then made Iberian Waltz (Takt JAZZ-7), recorded on June 28, 1967 at the Teichiku Kaikan Studio in Tokyo with Masabumi Kikuchi on piano and Togashi on drums. Harada played on Mariano's Folk Soul the same year, and on Watanabe's live Bossa Nova Concert. German Wikipedia names him as a member of the all-star band assembled by the magazine Swing Journal in 1967, and Discogs lists him on Swing Journal All Stars '67 (Takt).

Studio dates, Electone sessions and the trio records

Harada was also a regular on the studio dates built around the Electone organ and on the pop-jazz crossovers of the late 1960s. He is on Swingin' Electone! (Takt, 1967) with George Otsuka and Akira Ishikawa sharing the drum chair, and on Norio Maeda's Exciting Jazz Spirit (Union, 1968), where Maeda arranged and played Electone, Matsumoto played tenor, Kikuchi piano, and Togashi and Otsuka drums. He recorded Musical Play In Jazz (Union, 1969) in a quartet with Miyazawa, Maeda and Togashi, and cut a trio album with the pianist Kazuo Yashiro, Love Is Here To Stay (Takt JAZZ-17, recorded January 23, 1968), with Jimmy Takeuchi on drums and Hideo Miyata on cabasa. The Kazuo Yashiro Trio and the Shoji Yokouchi Quartet, which also included the guitarist Toru Konishi and the drummer Hajime Ishimatsu, are the two groups German Wikipedia names him as a member of in the 1970s.

Possibility Of The Bass

His one album built around himself came in 1970. Possibility Of The Bass (Express EP-8006, Toshiba) credits Harada on bass and as arranger. Four more bassists are listed as first to fourth bass, Jun Suzuki is credited on rhythm bass, Chico Kikuchi and Jimmy Takeuchi play drums, and the credits add the NHK Symphony Orchestra Bass Quartet. The program mixes Henry Mancini ("Moon River," "Baby Elephant Walk," "The Day of Wine and Roses") with Jobim's "One Note Samba," and Harada composed two pieces for it, "Basso Nova" and "A Suite of the Moon." The same year he took part in Bass And Drums (Union ULP-1005), a trio record with Masaoki Terakawa on electric bass and Hajime Ishimatsu on drums, on which Harada is credited on both acoustic and electric bass. Its twelve tracks are pop and rock hits of the day, among them "The Long and Winding Road," "Yellow River" and "El Condor Pasa."

Teddy Wilson, Eiji Kitamura and the 1970s

A recurring partner in his 1970s credits is Eiji Kitamura. Harada is on Teddy Wilson Meets Eiji Kitamura (Trio Records RSP-9015, 1970) with Ichiro Masuda on vibraphone and Buffalo Bill Robinson on drums, on the 1973 follow-up Swing Special / Teddy & Eiji Vol. 3, on the Kitamura-Kunihiko Sugano record Collaboration (Audio Lab, 1973), and on Farewell (Kiva KV-203), the trumpeter Fumio Nanri's last session, recorded in July 1974 with Kitamura on clarinet and issued in November 1975. He had already played on Nanri's Soul Trumpet (Express, 1971). Other leaders of the decade who hired him include the guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi on A Jazzy Profile Of Jojo (Victor, recorded March 1970) and the vocalist Martha Miyake on Martha In Person (Trio Records, 1973).

The latest dated sessions on his credit list are from 1976. In January and February of that year he recorded So Sorry Please (Toho YX-6102), the only record where his name appears on the cover as the featured player: it is billed to the vibraphonist Ichiro Masuda "featuring Masanaga Harada," with Toshio Ogawa on piano and Taketoshi Igarashi on drums, and takes its title from Bud Powell's tune. He played bass on Masuda's The Song Is Ended with Hank Jones the same year, joined Martha Miyake and Yoshiko Goto for What Is This Thing Called Life, and recorded the Victor series Let's Swing Now with Yashiro and, on the volume cut on July 18, 1976 at Victor No. 2 Studio, with the American drummer Donald Bailey and Toru Konishi.

Harada's style is best read from the records, because no interview or memoir of his has been published. The thread running through them is range. He is the bassist under Yagi's Monk repertoire (Discogs tags the session Bop), in the post-bop and modal rhythm sections of Miyazawa and Mariano, behind a vocalist on Martha In Person, in the swing of Wilson and Kitamura, in the bossa nova of Watanabe's 1967 concert, and in the rhythm sections of Electone organ albums. On Bass And Drums (1970) Discogs credits him on both acoustic and electric bass, and tags that record Jazz-Funk and Jazz-Rock. Bossa nova turns up in his own work as well: Possibility Of The Bass includes Jobim's "One Note Samba" and his composition "Basso Nova," and "Summer Samba" is on the Yashiro trio album.