A 1976 album by acclaimed drummer AKIRA ISHIKAWA & COUNT BUFFALO, who pursued their distinctive musical style with jazz and rock as their twin foundations.
Inspired by Okinawa, the album incorporates a diverse range of elements including funk, Afro, and disco, creating a genre-crossing sound. It features standards, Western pop covers, and Okinawan folk songs, brought to life through dynamic and experimental performances, including arrangements by Koichi Sugiyama.
The album also features memorable chorus performances by Kayoko Ishu and Time Five, making this a little-known and highly distinctive concept album.
The album is now being released for the first time on color vinyl.
Katsumi Tanaka (Minyo Crusaders):
“AKIRA ISHIKAWA & COUNT BUFFALO’s OKINAWA is a record I’ve loved since the early days of Minyo Crusaders, and it’s something of a musical bible for me. The arrangements are by none other than Koichi Sugiyama.
Built around Akira Ishikawa’s incredibly tight drumming, the A-side draws heavily on Philly soul and jazz funk, creating a sense of tropical freedom, as if you’ve wandered into a disco in Koza in the 1970s.
On the B-side, Okinawan scales, sitar guitar, and dreamlike choruses come together to create an entirely exotic world.
Following Okinawa’s 1972 reversion to Japan, the rise of rock and soul in Koza, the flourishing Okinawan folk music scene, and the 1975 Okinawa International Ocean Expo, Okinawa was undergoing major changes. Perhaps it was no coincidence that a group constantly seeking out new beats from around the world turned their attention to OKINAWA.
A masterpiece that I highly recommend listening to alongside Makoto Kubota’s Hawaii Champroo and Haruomi Hosono’s Bon Voyage co..
