Fusion Jazz: CASIOPEA

    Fusion Jazz, Jazz Fusion, whatever you call it, is a popular type of Jazz many people don't even know the name of. It also happens to be one of my favorite types of Jazz, so I decided to talk about it this week. I mentioned Fusion Jazz as one of the genre Miles Davis created in my blog post last week, what I didn't say is that it might be the most influential type of Jazz ever created. After the late 60s since its creation, many artists took on this fresh style of Jazz and played with it, one of them is the band I'm going to talk about this time: Casiopea. From the quirky English name you might have guessed, it's a Japanese band. And don't worry, their music isn't the serious type like Miles Davis, quite the opposite actually.

    Founded in the late 70s, the band took on all the swagger and style Japan had at that time. The band was known for its highly technical, melodic, and intricate funky music, they became a hit in the Japanese music scene as soon as they came around. Just take a look at their live performance and you'll get what I'm talking about.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w28_myKwB8) The person smiling and playing crazy piano cords is Minoru Mukaiya(向谷實), the keyboardist of the band. For me, he was the soul of Casiopea, despite the band still making awesome music after he left, they just don't hit the same for me. As the live performance demonstrates, the uplifting, fast style always brings a smile on the listener's face. 

    Most of the discography of Casiopea is amazing, so I would recommend you start listening from the very beginning all the way till the 80s. I especially recommend their debut album "CASIOPEA", 1981 album "CROSS POINT", and the 1982 live album "MINT JAMS". And if you don't know which one to start from, just press play on MINT JAMS, you will not regret it. Now if you listened to them, you might have a strange familiar feeling, but it's okay because you'll not be the only one. Remember when I said in the beginning that Fusion Jazz might be the most influential Jazz genre ever? This is what I'm talking about. Don't the crispy sounds just remind you of video games? Nintendo Wii, Sega, PlayStation, all of their music originated from this style. Since video games were made for people to have a good time and relax ,these uplifting melodies were carried onto the video game world. And from there, they entered our daily lives to cheer us up in various locations.

    Have you ever noticed the melodies played at train stations or MRTs, they also originated from Fusion Jazz. Moreover, they were even created by the same person. The master Minoru Mukaiya I mentioned earlier, was actually a massive train fan ever since he was a child.  With the success of Fusion Jazz and the band Casiopea, the Japanese government offered him the chance to create all the jingles that play in the train station, unsurprisingly, he took the job and went crazy with it.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSG5IkRA9BE This video talks about it.) With this, Mr. Mukaiya might be one of the most listened artists of all time.

    So you see, Jazz is actually no where near as alien as many people portrayed it to be, even though it could be super niche sometimes, it becomes way more common once you truly understand it. And I hate people for pretending as if Jazz is only made for the cool guys, no, Jazz is music for the people. Well, that's it for this week I guess, thank you for reading and have a good day.