Reissued October 23, 2020
We Release Jazz
1xLP (180g / Half-Speed Mastered)
It took a few decades before the late Ryo Fukui became a household name in the jazz world, and who is now positioned at the vanguard of a huge revival of interest in Japanese jazz. His 1976 debut Scenery and follow up Mellow Dream have since become staples of not only our jazz section, but in record shops and internet playlists the world over. It was in 1995 when he opened his own jazz club, Slowboat, in his hometown of Sapporo. In 2015 he recorded a number of pieces at his club, giving us the album A Letter From Slowboat. A love letter to his home, his fans, and his craft, this album is emotionally resonant all the while containing some of the more intricate compositions in his entire catalog. Operating as always with a trio of piano, drums and bass, Fukui’s keys wash over you as if under a waterfall, and his bandmates receive plenty of their own moments to shine with some excellent solos all over the album. Fukui passed away of lymphoma in 2016, but we were lucky enough to receive one final masterpiece from the don of Japanese jazz, in the form of a love letter addressed to all of us.