A Japanese jazz band named Soil & “Pimp” Sessions are producing a form of music being described as ‘death jazz’.

The group consists of six musicians: Shacho (agitator, spirit), Tabu Zombie (trumpet), Motoharu (saxophone), Josei (piano), Akita Goldman (bass) and Midoryn (drums).

After meeting at a club event in Tokyo in 2001, they formed when Shacho and Tabu Zombie began including live jam sessions in DJ sets. Soon after they established a reputation for their live performances, playing a distinctive form of aggressive alternative jazz.

Gradually the DJ sets were dropped as other members joined and the band line up was finalised with the aim of breaking away from the traditional techniques and traditions in a style they dubbed ‘death jazz’.

In 2003 they were still unsigned but managed to perform at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival where they made such an impact that they were signed soon after by JVC Victor.

In the summer of 2004 they released the mini-album Pimpin which scored decent reviews and in early 2005 they came out with their debut album Pimp Master.

Two tracks from it, ‘Waltz For Goddess’ and their cover of ‘A Wheel Within a Wheel’, made an impact with DJs abroad such as Gilles Peterson.

Jazz FM’s Mike Chadwick has been playing them on his Cutting Edge and Saturday night experience since their first Japanese 12″ came out.

In the summer 2005 they released a second mini-album, Summer Goddess, and toured outside of Japan for the first time at Cargo in London, and also in Berlin.

Their second full length album Pimp of the Year was released in 2006 and that year was also the release of their debut record in Europe on Compost Records and on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings label in the UK.

After touring throughout that year around Europe they also appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival before releasing their third album Pimpoint in March 2007 under the Victor Entertainment label.

You can visit them on MySpace at www.myspace.com/soilpimpuk