Yonin Bayashi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yonin Bayashi 四人囃子
Origin	Tokyo, Japan
Genre(s)	Psychedelic rock Progressive rock New Wave
Years active	1973–1979 1989 2001–present
Website	Yonin Bayashi Official Homepage (Japanese)
Members
Katsutoshi Morizono Daiji Okai Masahide Sakuma Hidemi Sakashita
Former members
Shinichi Nakamura Mitsuru Sato Yutaka Mogi

Yonin Bayashi (四人囃子, Four Musicians^?) is a legendary Japanese rock group which was popular in the 1970s.

The made its debut with the record Isshoku Sokuhatsu (一触即発 Volatile) in 1974, when all of the members were 20. Their virtuoso performance and experiment in studio were very exceptional and impressive at the dawn of Japanese rock business.

In the beginning, the band was lead by singer-guitarist Katsutoshi Morizono and drummer Daiji Okai. The sound was like a mixture of Pink Floyd, Yes, Deep Purple or Frank Zappa with Hendrixed guitar and Procol Harum-like drumming. After the first guitarist and bassist left, the band was fronted by guitarist Mitsuru Sato. The second bassist Masahide Sakuma brought feelings of Talking Heads or King Crimson in the '80s.

They broke up in 1979, but reform the group sporadically in almost original lineup.

In 2003, HMV Records Japan rated them #86 in their "Top 100 Japanese pops Artists".^[1]