The Sadistic Mika Band was a Japanese rock band formed in November 1971 by husband and wife duo Kazuhiko Katō and Mika Katō. In a time when it was still rare for women to sing in rock bands in Japan, the fact that the Katōs were a married couple was even more unusual. This, combined with their glam rock-influenced fashion, has been cited as groundbreaking for defying gender norms in the country. After releasing three studio albums and becoming the first Japanese rock band to tour the United Kingdom, the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded in November 1975 when the Katōs divorced.
"I Remember Clifford" is an instrumental jazz threnody written by jazz tenor saxophonist Benny Golson in memory of Clifford Brown, the influential and highly regarded jazz trumpeter who died in an auto accident at the age of 25. Brown and Golson had done a stint in Lionel Hampton's band together. The original recording was by Donald Byrd in January 1957.
Masayoshi Kabe often known by his stage name Louise Louis, was a Japanese bassist and guitarist from Yokohama, Japan. Numerous online sources present him as half-French and half-Japanese, but it's actually a marketing creation from the producers of the Golden Cups; Kabe was half-American and half-Japanese. He began his career in 1966 as a member of The Golden Cups. He was a studio musician throughout the 1970s and also a member of various bands such as Speed, Glue & Shinki until he permanently joined the supergroup Pink Cloud in 1978. After they disbanded in 1994 he formed the instrumental side-project ZZK while providing support to other musicians as a bassist. He also recorded four albums as bass player with the band Vodka Collins from 1995 to 1998. He died on 26 September 2020, of multiple organ failure.
Ryo Kawasaki was a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer and band leader, best known as one of the first musicians to develop and popularise the fusion genre and for helping to develop the guitar synthesizer in collaboration with Roland Corporation and Korg. His album Ryo Kawasaki and the Golden Dragon Live was one of the first all-digital recordings and he created the Kawasaki Synthesizer for the Commodore 64. During the 1960s, he played with various Japanese jazz groups and also formed his own bands. In the early 1970s, he moved to New York City, where he settled and worked with Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Chico Hamilton, Ted Curson, Joanne Brackeen amongst others. In the mid-1980s, Kawasaki drifted out of performing music in favour of writing music software for computers. He also produced several techno dance singles, formed his own record company called Satellites Records, and later returned to jazz-fusion in 1991.
"Connected" is a song recorded by Japanese recording artist and lyricist Ayumi Hamasaki for her fourth studio album I Am..., released on January 1, 2002. The song was written by Hamasaki herself while it was produced by Dutch disc jockey Ferry Corsten. The song was first conceived when Corsten had developed a track in Europe entitled "The Lots of Love". Despite him playing it at several events and shows throughout Europe, he did not release the track. After this, Hamasaki and Corsten had started to collaborate and the pair had changed and used the finishing result to create "Connected".
"Samba pa ti" is an instrumental by Latin rock band Santana, from their 1970 album, Abraxas. In English, the title means "Samba for You." It was released as a single in 1973. The song charted at No. 11 in the Netherlands, No. 43 on the German charts, and No. 27 on the UK Singles Chart, Santana's first single to chart in the United Kingdom.
T-Square, stylized in all-uppercase T-SQUARE, is a Japanese jazz fusion band formed in 1976. They became famous in the late 1970s and early 1980s along with other Japanese jazz bands. They are known for songs such as "Truth", "Japanese Soul Brothers", "Takarajima", "Omens of Love", among others.
Masayoshi is a masculine Japanese given name.
Yoshimasa Hosoya is a Japanese voice actor and narrator.
Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka is a rock and roll album recorded by American rock pioneer Little Richard and Japanese jazz fusion guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka. Released on the Eastworld label in 1992, it was Little Richard's final studio album before his death in 2020. The record features re-recordings of some of Little Richard's biggest hits.
Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami was a Japanese jazz drummer and session musician.
Masayoshi Takanaka is a Japanese guitarist, composer, and producer. Takanaka's music was influential in the city pop genre of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Senri Kawaguchi is a Japanese jazz and fusion drummer. In Japan she is sometimes known as tekazuhime (手数姫),. She has the image of a gecko on the front of her 20-inch bass drum, and on her Zildjian drumsticks. She has won many awards for her drumming.
Seigi Tanaka is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He played the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks after being drafted in 2016.
Jun Fukamachi was a Japanese jazz fusion composer, arranger, and keyboardist. He played with The Brecker Brothers and Steve Gadd and released albums for Polydor and Toshiba in the 1970s.
Mikio Masuda is a Japanese jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist.
"Jukkai (1984)" is the ninth single by Japanese entertainer Akina Nakamori. Written by Masao Urino and Masayoshi Takanaka, the single was released on July 25, 1984 by Warner Pioneer through the Reprise label. It was also the second single from her sixth studio album Possibility.
An Insatiable High is the third studio album by jazz fusion guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, released on Kitty Records in 1977. It has never been released in physical format outside of Japan.
Mandrake (マンドレイク) was a Japanese progressive rock band formed in Tokyo in 1973. One of the few Japanese groups active during the genre's heyday, they distinguished themselves by developing a style of their own, harder than the jazz fusion hybrid most other Japanese groups played.
Seychelles is the debut studio album by Japanese jazz fusion guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, released via Kitty Records in July 1976. The album's initial release was distributed via a cassette tape, and was re-released as a CD in 1984. The album is named after the Seychelles islands.
