Once again, Japanese crossover/fusion is heating up. As a development or spin-off from the global reappraisal boom of city pop, Japanese fusion has rapidly risen back into the spotlight since around last year.

This is an early representative work by shakuhachi player John Kaizan Neptune, an American musician who studied traditional Japanese music and continues to be active in Japan. He holds the professional shakuhachi title “Kaizan” in the Tozan school. While firmly rooted in traditional Japanese music, Neptune also explored the fusion of shakuhachi with jazz fusion, and this third album, "Bamboo", received the Excellence Award at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival. It marked the first such honor both for a jazz work and for a foreign artist.

At the time, the album was released nationwide in the United States through New York’s Inner City Records, and in recent years it has seen a rapid rise in demand from inbound listeners. The accompanying Arakawa Band is a fusion group led by jazz saxophonist Tatsuhiko Arakawa, known for collaborations with prominent big bands. (Original release: 1980)

Remastering & cutting: Katsutoshi Kitamura (Mixer’s Labo)