Definitive Biography of Jazz Musician Ryo Fukui, Northern Jazz Around the World, to Be Released on June 19, 2026

Rittor Music, an Impress Group company engaged in music-related media businesses, announced that it will release Northern Jazz Around the World: A Critical Biography of Ryo Fukui on June 19, 2026. The book is a definitive biography of jazz musician Ryo Fukui (1948-2016), whose name has rapidly gained wider recognition in recent years. Based in Sapporo, Fukui was known during his lifetime mainly to devoted listeners, but after his death his music was rediscovered overseas and quickly spread through YouTube and Spotify. Why did he come to attract listeners around the world? Author Shinji Kuriyama, a former television director who knew Fukui during his lifetime, traces Fukui’s life through interviews with numerous people connected to him and explores the appeal of the music he created. The book covers many previously untold episodes, including Fukui’s childhood in a family of itinerant performers, how he made his recording debut after beginning piano at age 22, and the story behind the birth of his globally beloved piece “Mellow Dream.” These stories are presented alongside rare, previously unpublished photographs. A commemorative concert for the book’s publication is also scheduled for June 25 at Sapporo The Lutheran Hall. Book details: title, Northern Jazz Around the World: A Critical Biography of Ryo Fukui; author, Shinji Kuriyama; format, 272 pages; price, 2,640 yen; release date, June 19, 2026; ISBN 9784845644438. Contents include: Chapter 1, A Life That Began with Live Performance; Chapter 2, A Jazz Pianist Born Late; Chapter 3, An Unsettled Place to Belong; Chapter 4, Pursuing His Own Path at Home Base; Chapter 5, In a Rich Period of Maturity; Chapter 6, Ryo Fukui Draws the World’s Attention. Author Shinji Kuriyama is a writer and producer born in 1969. He joined NHK as a director in 1992 and worked on programs including Ohayo Nippon, Close-up Gendai, and NHK Special, covering a wide range of topics from U.S. presidential elections to sports documentaries. From 2023, he served as senior production manager at NHK Sapporo’s media center. He took early retirement in March 2026 and began working independently. Kuriyama first met Ryo Fukui through an interview in 2003 and maintained a relationship with him afterward. The publication commemorative concert will be held on June 25, 2026, at Sapporo The Lutheran Hall. Slowboat, the jazz live house opened by Ryo Fukui, will host a special concert. In the first part, three pianists who had connections with Fukui will each perform solo and present their own musical worlds. In the second part, a quintet mainly composed of musicians in their twenties who never met Fukui will deliver an energetic performance expressing the “Ryo Fukui spirit” inherited at Slowboat.