Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer, Composer (1947-2020)

Born 25 February 1947 in Tokyo, Japan, Ryo Kawasaki attended Nippon University where he majored in quantum physics and earned his Bachelor of Science degree. Inspired by Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue album at age 16, he began playing professionally with his jazz ensemble in cabarets while also building electronic amplifiers, speakers, and an electric organ. He worked as a sound engineer for Japanese Victor Records and BGM/TBS Music and taught at Yamaha's jazz school before recording his first album Easy Listening Jazz Guitar for Polydor in 1969 aged 22. He moved to New York City in 1973 and achieved his breakthrough with The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix (1974), leading to work with Chico Hamilton, Elvin Jones, Dave Liebman, Joanne Brackeen, and Tarika Blue. He released Juice (1976, RCA), Eight Mile Road (1976), and Prism (1976) before building his first guitar synthesizer in 1979, which he used on Little Tree and Live with his band the Golden Dragon. He collaborated with Roland Corporation and Korg to develop the guitar synthesizer and created the Kawasaki Synthesizer for the Commodore 64. In the mid-1980s he moved into music software development and produced techno dance singles on his label Satellites Records, returning to jazz in 1991 with the acoustic solo album Here, There and Everywhere. In 2000 he moved to Tallinn, Estonia, where he composed the jazz ballet Still Point for the Estonian National Opera House and in 2016 formed Level 8 with Estonian musicians, releasing their album in March 2017. Kawasaki died in Tallinn on 13 April 2020, aged 73.