Attila Zoller & Masahiko Sato
A Path Through Haze.

A connection made before Berlin

Attila Zoller first played with Masahiko Sato while touring Japan alongside Kenny Burrell and Jim Hall. The connection was immediate, according to the guitarist’s recollection in the MPS notes: “From the first sound on we were completely together”. A Path Through Haze brought that partnership into a Berlin studio with bassist Yasuo Arakawa and drummer Masahiko Ozu.

Zoller had already crossed musical and national borders. The Hungarian guitarist moved from Germany to New York in 1959, encouraged by Oscar Pettiford and Lee Konitz. Sato brought experience as a composer and arranger as well as a pianist, including work on recordings by Nancy Wilson and Art Farmer. Here, both leaders contribute compositions, while three pieces carry their shared writing credit.

Four players, then two, then three

The changing ensemble is central to the programme. Zoller’s “Meet” opens with the quartet; “Sazo” and “Close Up” place guitar and piano together as a duo. Between them, “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” belongs to Sato’s piano trio. The Appalachian folk song and “Close Up” are the two selections highlighted in the reel.

“Together-Not Alone” takes the chord changes of “Alone Together” as its starting point. Sato’s closing title piece brings back the quartet. Across six tracks, the partnership therefore moves between jointly written material, individual compositions and a traditional melody, with the number of musicians changing along the way.

A festival occasion, a studio recording

The original sleeve dates the session to 7 November 1971 at Teldec Studio in Berlin, recorded on the occasion of that year’s Berlin Jazz Festival. That distinction matters: the festival supplied the occasion, while the named recording location was the studio. The four instrumental credits identify Zoller on guitar, Sato on piano, Arakawa on bass and Ozu on drums.

Eberhard Sengpiel engineered the recording. Joachim Ernst Berendt is credited as executive producer, with Willi Fruth as recording director. Sepp Werkmeister supplied both photography and graphics for the German gatefold sleeve. These credits place the music within a particular production, from the session’s supervision to the artwork that accompanied its release.

The session travels on record

MPS released the album in 1972, after the 1971 session. Sengpiel’s discography lists the German MPS/BASF LP under catalogue number 21 21284-2, followed by Japanese MPS pressings YZ-28-MP in 1973 and ULX-38-P in 1975. Those are edition dates, distinct from the day the musicians recorded in Berlin.

The record’s route from a meeting in Japan to a session in Germany is reflected in its programme. The shared writing and the two guitar-and-piano duets keep the original partnership in view, even as the quartet makes room for Sato’s trio and a folk melody from another tradition.

Track list

Album details

Original release	1972
Label	MPS Records
Genre	Jazz
Recording	7 November 1971 · Teldec Studio, Berlin
Personnel	Attila Zoller: guitar; Masahiko Sato: piano; Yasuo Arakawa: bass; Masahiko Ozu: drums
Executive producer	Joachim Ernst Berendt
Recording director	Willi Fruth
Engineer	Eberhard Sengpiel
Original German LP	21 21284-2 · gatefold sleeve
Tracks	6