As you’d expect from an outfit that was named by Gilles Peterson (he referred to the DJ duo as the “Kyoto Jazz Massive”), these purveyors of sweet grooves have been busy championing the Japanese Club Jazz sound, rocking dance floors and stunning groovers worldwide with their mixed bag of funky nu-jazz, broken beats and sophisticated electronic bleeps. The duo has created one of the biggest buzzes for any club-jazz tunes in a long time, so I-S spoke to member Shuya Okino to get the skinny on Kyoto Jazz Massive ahead of their gig here.

Can you tell us something about your background and how you got into the music?
I started my career as a graphic designer. My first job was to design the poster, flyer and ticket of small club called Container in Kyoto. After that, I became a manager of the club and started DJ-ing every Thursday night.

How long have you been collaborating musically with each other?
We’ve being DJ-ing together for 18 years and making music together for 10.

Can we say you relate yourself to club jazz with a wider and more diverse approach? How do you see today’s Club Jazz scene?
I don’t see Club Jazz as a music genre. Club Jazz is about finding the influence of jazz in different kinds of music—from techno to underground hip hop. But I know that sounds like tech-house and live jazz are getting bigger and more popular among the club jazz set.

A lot has been written about the jazz and nu-jazz scenes in Japan. Is it still as vibrant as it has been in the past few years?
Yes of course. There are so many jazz oriented artists like Sleep Walker, Soil & Pimp Sessions, Jazztronik, Quasimode, Cro-magnon and DJ Kawasaki who have all released their music in Japan.

What do you think it is about Japanese dance culture that produces such unique and jazzy music?
I think house, techno, hip hop and reggae are also big in Japan. But Japanese people love to listen to jazz in cool places like designer restaurants, lounges and cafes. And we had big fusion movement in the late ‘70s and a big acid jazz movement in the early ‘90s.

Do you believe jazz in music is becoming very trendy and losing some of its power?
I have been doing this—playing and introducing jazz music for almost 20 years—so I don’t really know and care if it is trendy or not these days. But I do know that more people are listening to Club Jazz than before. One big problem is that J-Pop is stealing the image of Club Jazz.

Which jazz scene influences your music most?
London. I decided to become a DJ when I was in London 20 years ago. Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge created the concept of Club Jazz in the late ‘80s in London. Gilles also suggested the name Kyoto Jazz Massive to us.

So what can we expect from your gig here in Singapore?
Expect exciting soulful music from Japan. We will also show you a good fusion of jazz, funk, soul, house and techno.