Ryo Kawasaki: Juice [MR BONGO]

Why you'll love it

Mr Bongo's reissue brings back the 1976 RCA album, a synth-laced jazz-funk record long prized by collectors. Hip-hop producers have sampled it, "Bamboo Child" among them.

This edition

• Obi strip
• Printed insert

About the album

Ryo Kawasaki grew up in Tokyo, the son of a diplomat, and was one of the first musicians to develop and popularise jazz fusion. By the early 70s he'd moved to New York and was working with Gil Evans and Elvin Jones, and in May 1976 he spent three days at RCA's New York studios cutting his own band record, with every tune but one written and arranged by Kawasaki himself.

Producer Mike Lipskin gave him a crack New York crew: Tom Coster of Santana on keyboards and synthesizer, Stu Woods on bass, Jimmie Young on drums, Hugh McCracken on rhythm guitar and Sam Morrison on saxes and flute. "Raisins" opens with a drum break and a bubbling bass line, "East Side Boogie" leans toward the disco floor, "Bamboo Child" and "Andes" drift into dreamier territory, and the standard "The Breeze and I" gets a seven-minute fusion makeover, with Kawasaki's string synthesizer shimmering over the lot.

Kawasaki went on to help Roland and Korg develop the guitar synthesizer and later wrote music software for the Commodore 64, which puts our ongoing struggle with the till into some perspective.

Also at Kops: more Ryo Kawasaki on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On RCA / Mr Bongo, a reissue of the 1976 album.