Ryo Fukui Vinyl Records

Ryo Fukui (1948-2016) was a Japanese jazz pianist and composer. Born in Sapporo, Japan, he was largely self-taught, learning jazz by listening to records. His two albums, Scenery (1976) and Mellow Dream (1977), are considered masterpieces of Japanese jazz. The album Scenery features tracks such as "It Could Happen to You", "Early Summer" and "Autumn Leaves", while Mellow Dream has tracks like "My Foolish Heart" and "I Want to Talk About You".

Fukui is credited with popularizing jazz in Japan, and his music has been sampled by the likes of Common, Kanye West and J Dilla. In addition, his music was featured in the critically acclaimed film "Shoplifters" (2018).

An interesting fact about Fukui is that he only began playing jazz professionally in his late twenties, after leaving his job as a computer engineer.