German-japanese sound wizard Naoki Kenji started his career as a keyboard player in Tokio and Osaka. Deeply influenced by the Japanese culture that surrounded him, his interest for electronic music started to grow. And when it have been the big electronica heros such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Riuchi Sakamoto that inspired him back then, Kenji today may look back on his own long-lasting career as producer, composer, and remixer.
With his first album Tozai from 1999 he already landed a US release, such as few European artists manage. In 2000 Naoki released the album Shogun on Neuton under the pseudonym “JP Juice”, followed in 2001 by the album Electric Bolero on ICM by his project “Planet Lounge” - a style mix of jazz, world percussion and electronics created together with Christoph Spendel and Hakim Ludin…
An extension of the popular Original Jazz Classics series (est. 1982), the new OJC Remasters releases reveal the sonic benefits of 24-bit remastering-a technology that didn't exist when these titles were originally issued on compact disc. The addition of newly-written liner notes further enhances the illuminating quality of the OJC Remasters reissues. "Each of the recordings in this series is an all-time jazz classic," says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the series.