Prism -- Dancing Moon

I've heard about this group for years but never got around to writing about Prism until today. Mind you, one of the original members of this fusion band, guitarist Katsutoshi Morizono（森園勝敏）, has had representation on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for about a couple of years through one article.

Prism was formed in 1975 and its original lineup had Morizono, guitarist Akira Wada（和田アキラ）, bassist Ken Watanabe（渡辺建）, keyboardists Kouki Ito（伊藤幸毅）and Daisaku Kume（久米大作）, and drummer Toru Suzuki（鈴木徹）. From reading their article on J-Wiki, I found out that Wada had been greatly influenced by the Latin rock of Santana and jazz pianist Chick Corea's jazz fusion group Return to Forever, and brought some of that influence into Prism.

The original lineup lasted until 1978 and during that time, Prism was able to release two studio albums, one of which was the 1977 debut "Prism", and from that album, I give you "Dancing Moon". It starts out AOR-mellow and with a sax solo (I don't know who provided it) before the guitarists come on in with a melody line that probably had folks racing to buy the audiotape to throw into their car stereos. Maybe it was a good time to bomb down the highway from Tokyo to Shonan. Even in my room typing this while listening to "Dancing Moon" with the fan wafting the breeze behind me, I'm feeling pretty wavy right now. There's a bit of a detour into rock and even some Stevie Wonder riff territory halfway through.

The band has gone through several lineup changes up to the present, and as of 2013, Prism still has Wada but he's now joined by bassist Jiro Okada（岡田治郎）, drummer Mansaku Kimura（木村万作）and keyboardist Cher Watanabe（渡部チェル）.