Taeko Ohnuki — Summer Connection
Sunshower · 1977
Label: Panam · Genre: City Pop / Jazz Fusion · From: Tokyo, East Asia
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.
Did you know: Sunshower sold almost nothing on its 1977 release and was quickly forgotten. It only became recognised as a City Pop masterpiece decades later, when the genre's international rediscovery surfaced it to new listeners. The album is now considered one of the founding texts of the genre.
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