Link: https://youtu.be/r7jkrDBkMGI

I found this recording while diving deeper into eastern Asia jazz fusion. The band, Casiopea, is a Japanese jazz fusion band that started in the late 1970’s and is actually still making music under a new name of Casiopea-P4. The many recordings that there are on YouTube all start in different ways as they are part of a show lineup. I think that it is brilliant that they all kind of start differently, and the recording I have attached is my favorite version. The band took a lot of inspiration from American jazz, hip hop and R&B which gives the band its unique songs. I am doing my research paper on what kinds of traditional influences inspired bands like Casiopea. Asayake is a song meant to jam out to with your friends and uses a lot of typical western jazz instruments. There is clear influence from American rock solos, but there is a clear twist to them. I chose this example because Casiopea is slowly but surely becoming my favorite eastern musician groups and I am really interested in diving deeper into their roots and the traditional elements that may have inspired them, and how that style of music took such a large step away from traditional elements.