About

A stylish selection of jazz-funk from Japanese label Electric Bird, selected by Dj Notoya and featuring Yasuaki Shimizu, Shunzo Ohno, Bobby Lyle, Toshiyuki Honda and Ronnie Foster. Following the success of the 'Tokyo Glow' compilation, Wewantsounds once again teams up with Japanese Tokyo-based DJ Notoya to dig through the rich Electric Bird catalogue and come with a versatile selection of jazz-funk gems recorded between 1978 and 1987 for the label. A selection featuring Yasuaki Shimizu, Toshiyuki Honda and Mikio Masuda, together with a few American musicians such as Ronnie Foster and Bobby Lyle.

Electric Bird was founded in Tokyo in 1977 as a sublabel of King Records, one of the oldest record companies in Japan. On top of producing and releasing music by Japanese artists, King had also been functioning as a distributor in the 1970s for such great US jazz labels as CTI and Blue Note. As these labels and their blend of 'crossover jazz' - led by such big selling artists like Bob James and Earl Klugh - began to gain a huge following domestically and internationally, King felt the need to get into the arena themselves and start producing fusion jazz recorded by Japanese artists, and then 'fly' them in front of an international audience so to speak - hence the name of the label, Electric Bird. The label's head of A&R, Shigeyuki Kawashima, had worked at King's distribution arm, looking after CTI, and from there he built the label's huge following in Japan, setting up strong ties with the New York label and their artists in the process. This enabled Electric Bird to record some of their albums in the Big Apple, occasionally using a handpicked selection of renowned US musicians for the sessions. The Electric Bird label was active for many years and its rich back catalogue is filled with funky jazz delicacies. Funk Tide is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Most tracks are making their vinyl debut outside of Japan and the album has been designed by Optigram/Manuel Sepulveda and annotated by DJ Notoya. The audio has also been newly remastered in Tokyo by King Records. — via Label

↓
Label: Wewantsounds
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Remastered
Released: 2024
Genre: Jazz, Funk / Soul
Style: Jazz-Funk

File under: Soul-Jazz / Jazz-Funk
⦿