On The Floor! - Live at Club AIR, Tokyo

Shuya Okino

Kyoto Jazz Massive, Japan

Since starting out as a DJ crew in their hometown Kyoto in the late 80's, Shuya Okino and his brother Yoshi have been a driving force on the Japanese music scene. Deeply influenced by the rare groove movement in London at the time it was Gilles Peterson himself who came up with their name by just calling them the "Kyoto Jazz Massive". Shuya later moved to Tokyo, managed rising local talent such as Monday Michiru and Mondo Grosso, and was instrumental in Mondo Grosso's 'Souffles H' record, which was epochal connecting jazz and house music. He's well known for his enormous commitment to the jazz scene both as director and resident DJ for legendary club 'The Room'. On the production side of things the sound of Kyoto Jazz Massive is often associated with jazz fusion. They were inspired by important Japanese jazz musicians such as Terumasa Hino, Teruo Nakamura or Ryo Kawasaki and in the studio always tried to combine classic jazz elements with styles like techno, house and broken beats. In 2002 their album 'Spirit of the Sun' was released on Compost and just recently Shuya and Yoshi celebrated their 10th anniversary of Kyoto Jazz Massive. Arigato!