Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra

"I'd make time for Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra anytime," observed veteran reggae guitarist Dennis Bovell, who once produced the ensemble. Emerging in the late 1980s as a ska-revival outfit that performed on the streets and in clubs around their native city, the crisply attired Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra swiftly established itself as the standard-bearers of Japan's ska movement. That wave rose to prominence during the 1990s alongside the comparatively roots-oriented ska of the Ska Flames, who appeared on Gaz Mayall's British imprint, and the Determinations, who hailed from Osaka. Sharing those groups' largely instrumental approach, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra relied on forceful, tightly executed charts that captured the buoyant drive of foundational Jamaican ska acts such as the Skatalites, a vitality matching any contemporary ska expression worldwide.

Across more than one thousand concerts the group cultivated a live following that secured invitations to England's Glastonbury Festival and France's Eurockeennes. Revising its musical direction through upward of ten albums, among them occasional European editions, and navigating the loss of two members along with the exit of founding bandleader Asa-Chang, the ten-piece Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra nevertheless collaborated with major figures in Japanese music, among them Shiina Ringo, Puffy AmiYumi, and Thee Michelle Gun Elephant's Yusuke Chiba. At various points the ensemble also worked with former Specials vocalist Neville Staples and trombonist Rico Rodriguez.

Percussionist Asa-Chang assembled the band, which attained swift recognition. Inside two years of its first recording, a self-titled 12-inch single issued in 1989, and a mere twelve months after the appearance of debut album Ska Para Toujou, the group advanced from Tokyo's club circuit to headline the Budokan before an audience of ten thousand. Asa-Chang's departure in 1993 prompted a reevaluation of internal procedures that ultimately secured Ska Para's endurance, as every member thereafter contributed to arrangements and production decisions. The adjustment proved essential following the 1995 death of flamboyant frontman Cleanhead Gimura; original drummer Tatsuyuki Aoki passed away in 1999. Amid these transitions the band delivered what many consider its strongest statement, Full-Tension Beaters, issued on the Avex label in 2000. That set marked the outfit's first European release and was followed by an eleven-date continental tour completed inside twelve days.

Between the 2002 chart-topping album Stompin' on Downbeat Alley and its 2003 successor High Numbers, Ska Para delivered its largest headlining performance to that point, drawing fifteen thousand fans to Yokohama Arena. Subsequent appearances reached still larger crowds at Glastonbury and Eurockeennes. In 2004 the group became the first Japanese act booked at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee, after which it mounted a North American trek and a third European outing that included sold-out concerts in Barcelona and Madrid plus a slot at Denmark's Roskilde festival. Further affirmation arrived in 2006 when Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra joined erstwhile Specials member Rico Rodriguez for the Japan-only album Japa-Rico, confirming that Dennis Bovell was hardly alone in making time for Japan's preeminent ska practitioners.