John Kaizen Neptune – Bamboo

This limited first-press vinyl release from Universal Music highlights a curated selection from it's extensive catalog, focusing on rare or previously non-analog titles chosen to meet strong global and inbound collector demand, with each release pressed on colored vinyl designed to complement the jacket artwork; reflecting the renewed popularity of Japanese crossover and fusion alongside the global city pop resurgence, the lineup features artists such as Masayoshi Takanaka, Jun Fukamachi, CASIOPEA, The Players, Himiko Kikuchi, NORIKI, Mariah, and Ryo Kawasaki, whose appeal has expanded to younger audiences embracing the genre with fresh perspectives, while also aligning with growing interest in ambient, techno-influenced, and soundtrack-style listening; this particular title, originally released in 1980, is the third album Bamboo by shakuhachi master John Kaizan Neptune, an American artist trained in traditional Japanese music who holds the professional Tozan-ryu title Kaizan, blending traditional shakuhachi performance with jazz fusion in an award-winning work that received the Excellence Award at the Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival, a first for both a jazz recording and a foreign artist, featuring accompaniment by the Arakawa Band led by saxophonist Tatsuhiko Arakawa, and newly remastered and cut by Katsutoshi Kitamura at Mixer's Labo on clear light-green vinyl for this Pure Vinyl edition.