Taeko Ohnuki was 23 when she recorded Sunshower with arranger Ryuichi Sakamoto — before he was famous, before Yellow Magic Orchestra existed, before either of them knew what they were building. The album fused smooth jazz, soft rock, and city pop in 1977, a year before the genre had a name. Summer Connection, the opener, is four minutes of breezy soul-jazz that still sounds like arriving in Tokyo on a warm evening.
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