Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffalo

A 1976 release by renowned drummer Akira Ishikawa and Count Buffalo, who pursued their own distinctive musical style with jazz and rock as its twin foundations. Inspired by Okinawa, the album incorporates a diverse range of elements, including funk, Afro, and disco, creating a genre-spanning sound. Featuring standards, Western pop covers, and Okinawan folk songs, the album showcases dynamic and experimental performances, including arrangements by Koichi Sugiyama. The memorable backing vocals by Kayoko Ishu and Time Five add to the appeal of this little-known, unconventional concept album. This marks its first-ever color vinyl release.

Ishikawa is at the drums with Takao Naoi on electric guitar, Hideo Ichikawa on keyboards, Masaoki Terakawa on electric bass, Larry Sunaga on Latin percussion, Koji Hatori on trumpet, Eiji Arai on trombone, Takeru Muraoka on tenor and alto saxophone, Masao Suzuki on baritone saxophone and the Ohno Group on strings. Produced by Sugiyama, Ishikawa and Reiko Yukawa.

Japanese reissue by King Records for the Sound Fuji archive project, on clear vinyl. Newly cut from a 96kHz/24bit transfer of the original master tapes. Sleeve and obi follow the original edition. Originally released November 21st 1976 on Seven Seas (SKA-154).