Kaze - KAZE SINGLE COLLECTION (2007)

Contains 12 songs including sound sources not included in the original album. Also included is the movie ``22 Years Old Farewell,'' which was released in the summer of 2007 and was an homage to director Nobuhiko Obayashi.

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Kaze (風) was a Japanese musical duo composed of singer-songwriters Shouzou Ise and Kazuhisa Ookubo. They were best known for their chart-topping debut single 22-sai no Wakare, which was released in 1975.

After he joined Kaguyahime, Shozo Ise came to prominence as a recording artist. Along with Minami and Panda Yamada, he enjoyed successful career during the first half of 1970s. However, due to the conflict with Crown Records, the trio decided to split at the peak of popularity and other members started their own solo careers. On the suggestion of the record executive Yutaka Goto, a representative of their management office at the time, Ise decided to form another recording project with Kazuhisa Ookubo.

On February 5 1975, about two months before Kaguyahime's farewell concert, Kaze's first single 22-sai no Wakare was released. A month after, it topped the Oricon chart and eventually became one of best-selling singles of the year, selling over 700,000 units. The song itself was a remake version of Kaguyahime's fan-favorite tune penned by Ise, which originally appeared on the trio's Sankaidate no Uta album. It became Kaze's signature song as well as one of the standard Japanese pop songs from the 1970s, and would later be covered by artists such as Kozo Murashita, Akina Nakamori, Cool Five, and Kei Yasuda with Mari Yaguchi from Morning Musume.

Their debut album, entitled simply First, was released in June 1975. The album went straight to the top of the Oricon chart, even though it did not contain any hit singles. The album features then-unknown Tatsuro Yamashita, Junko Yamamoto, and Minako Yoshida on background vocals.

Between 1975 and 1978, Kaze released five studio albums from Nippon Crown, all of which reached the top 3 on the charts. The music on their first two albums was introspective folk-oriented pop, but on their later material Ise would pursue West Coast-style jazz-rock sound with the arranger Ichizo Seo, which was influenced by one of their favorite artists Steely Dan.

Following the release of their fifth album Moony Night, the duo went on hiatus as the members decided to pursue their own solo careers. Ise continues to release material to this day, whereas Ookubo left the show business in 1983 to become a pharmacist. Although he had semi-retired as a professional musician, he would occasionally return to the stage to perform with Ise for brief reunion concerts.