Casiopea

Casiopea (カシオペア) is a Japanese jazz fusion band founded in Tokyo in 1976. Since its inception, Casiopea has seen many line-up changes, to the point where the band and its fans distinguish between different periods of the band's history as different bands under the same name, the current incarnation being the band's fourth ("Casiopea-P4"). Guitarist, band leader and main composer Issei Noro has been the sole musician to remain a band member throughout its entire history and is credited with the being the main architect of its funk- and smooth jazz-inspired fusion sound.

Originally founded by a group of friends to contest a Yamaha-organized band competition, Casiopea took around two years to stabilize its line-up around the core of Noro, keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya, bassist Tetsuo Sakurai and drummer Takashi Sasaki. In 1979, this version of the band released its self-titled debut album which boasted guest appearances from David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers on brass. Despite this American connection, the band neither toured nor found much recognition outside of Japan until the release of its critically acclaimed live album Mint Jams, which brought the band into the international limelight and ensured them a long and fruitful career.

At the end of the 1980s — a remarkably productive decade which saw the band releasing as much as 12 studio albums, briefly experimenting with a singer, and collaborating with T-Square as well as Lee Ritenour, Harvey Mason and Nathan East — the first mark of Casiopea is generally agreed to have ended with the departure of Sakurai and long-time drummer Akira Jimbo, after which "Casiopea 2^nd" soldiered on until Mukaiya's departure and the band's hiatus in 2006. Two more incarnations and many more albums have followed since its reformation in 2012. In 2022 Casiopea-P4, consisting of Noro, keyboardist Kiyomi Otaka, bassist Yoshihiro Naruse and drummer Yoshinori Imai, released its debut album New Topics, the 41^st studio album of the band overall.