urban/soul/blues/r&b/gospel

our latest examination of esoteric, modal & progressive jazz of the 20th century has taken us to japan. the liberating force of jazz has been created and felt all around the world, but few nations on earth embraced the jazz message with the passion and intensity of japan. from the dawn of the jazz age to the present day, japanese audiences have been renowned tastemakers, enthusiasts and champions of the music in the 1980s, japan was the biggest per capita market in the world for jazz records, and it has even been said that japanese jazz fans kept the jazz record industry alive through the lean years of the 1970s, when the music fell from commercial favour in the land of its birth.

in the years following the world war two, japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. for a crucial period of little over a decade - from the late 1960s to the early 1980s - japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. this amazing journey is explored on ‘j jazz’.