The amazing Japanese jazz-fusion band Casiopea
A bit of nostalgia in this edition of Frontaal Naakt’s little music corner, because Casiopea is the first Japanese band I was a fan of. My best friend in school, Armand Spee, made me listen to their live album Mint Jams (1982), that had just been released and it was one of the most amazing things I had ever heard. Especially Domino Line, the piece performed in the video above, with its incredible bass solo, followed by a drum solo that’s at least as impressive. It sounds pretty much the same in the video as on the album.
Armand was crazy about bass players, he started to play bass guitar himself and plays in a band, Yours, that has an album out and everything. Together we saw a great deal of bands with great bass-players.
In 1984 we got the chance to see Casiopea’s bass player, Sakurai Tetsuo in action at the North Sea Jazz festival in The Hague. But we needed a day-ticket and that was expensive for 16-year old me. Armand said it was worth the investment, it would be an experience I woud never forget. My dad said that was nonsense, some gig by some Japanese band would not be an experience to remember the rest of my life.
Boy, was he wrong, exactly this particular gig is an experience I have always fondly remembered, one of the happiest memories of my life. It was mind-blowing, exciting, one of the most amazing things we had ever seen. Casiopea played in a large tent behind the Congres Building, a large building complex where some jazz god or jazz goddess performed in one of the rooms and halls.
There was a mass of enthousiastic fans, many Indo-European and Moluccan Dutch people as I recall, who went wild and kept shouting for more after Casiopea did their first set. They came back, left the stage, and the crowd wanted more. So they came back and played some more, left, the crowd kept yelling for more. They kept coming back. You could see the astonishment on their faces, it was clear they had never ever before played before a crowd that loved them that much. I don’t remember exactly, but I think they must have played six or seven encores. It was fantastic.
They where on the North Sea Jazz programme for years after that, and we went to see them every year. (PB)
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