“His English was pretty much restricted to a shout of ‘Teachers'”: this was how Ian McLagan described his FACES bandmate Tetsu Yamauchi who died today, aged 79. It speaks volumes, then, of the bassist’s talents that all the communication Tetsu required from his Western colleagues ran through music, even before Yamauchi came to prominence as a member of FREE where he replaced Andy Fraser in 1972. Only being a star seemed to always be far from the Japanese player’s mind.
Tetsu started off back in the Land of the Rising Sun in the late ’60s, performing with a free-jazz ensemble SAMURAI and going with them to Europe, although it was in his homeland that he met Alan Merrill and accompanied the future “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” there in 1971. After their Tokyo concert, the musicians went to a local club and came across Paul Kossoff: impressed with Yamauchi’s skills, the guitarist invited him, a bit later, to work on a project involving Simon Kirke and John Bundrick – and the rest is history.
He would issue a few solo albums and take part in quite a few sessions, before returning to Japan and rarely venturing outside Nippon to jam with friends, yet the veteran’s greatest achievement is a co-penning credit on FREE’s “Wishing Well” which has been covered many times – and he’s still is remembered by FACES aficionados… unfortunately, often getting mixed in public view with Phil Chen.
May his spirit rest in peace.
