Recorded in 1994 at a Lutheran Hall performance in Sapporo mainly featuring original compositions, “My Favorite Tune” was devoted to Ryo Fukui’s home region of Hokkaido. It features favorite tracks from other LPs reimagined and covers of pieces from Barry Harris, Sonny Clark, and Avery Parrish. The album quickly sold out of copies and has seen several reprintings since his cult rise in the 2010s. It’s his “lost” album, an echo of his talent.
After WWII and the cultural embargo set by the Japanese empire, a growing interest in jazz music grew in Japan, capturing the hearts of many including Ryo Fukui. The self-taught pianist from Sapporo, Ryo would begin releasing his jazz in the mid-70s. American jazz artists he grew up loving were moving more towards jazz-fusion due to a decline in mainstream popularity. However, jazz in Japan was still as popular as ever, allowing Ryo to create some of the best hard-bop and straight jazz of the decade. Many overlooked his contributions until the 2010s when internet algorithms and recommendations proliferated his music online. After his passing in 2016, his music saw a spike in popularity which would spark a niche interest in Japanese jazz.
