Kazumi+watanabe

Kazumi Watanabe was only 17 when his debut Infinite was released in 1971, with his display of guitar skills establishing him as a young prodigy. As the late 70's continued, Watanabe created over a dozen jazz fusion albums, while also performing guitar segments on other musicians' albums. He travelled with Yellow Magic Orchestra on their tour in 1979 and was a key collaborator with many of the musicians involved, in particular with Ryuichi Sakamoto…

To Chi Ka is a fusion album by Kazumi Watanabe. It was recorded and mixed in March 1980 during a very prolific period for Watanabe and then released in May 1980. The album features some of the most acclaimed jazz and rock musicians; part of them will follow Watanabe in other projects, too…

Olive's Step is the 6th album by Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe. The album was released on LP by Better Days label of Nippon Columbia in 1977…

A flexible and powerful electric bassist, Jeff Berlin was one of the major fusion bassist to emerge during the mid-'70s. His father sang opera and his mother played piano. Berlin had nine years of violin lessons starting from when he was five and was considered a child prodigy, appearing with orchestras in New York City…

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album appeared before he formed Yellow Magic Orchestra in late 1978, after the young keyboardist had earned his M.A. in music from Tokyo University. Six long instrumentals make up this CD, but apart from a taste for Asian-sounding synth lines, they hint at very little of what was to come in YMO. "Thousand Knives" is a long disco-lite jazzy workout with a very un-synthesized guitar solo by Kazumi Watanabe (who would later join YMO on tour and have his solo album produced by Sakamoto)…

"T-SQUARE alpha" started its activities as a unit form of Takeshi Itoh and Satoshi Bandoh 44 years after his professional debut in 1978. The name T-SQUARE alpha has the meaning of plus alpha that something is added freely to the next…