Biography
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Born
13 November 1951 (age 72)
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Born In
Oakland, Alameda County, California, United States
Neptune was born in Oakland, California, on November 13, 1951 and moved with his family to San Diego, California when he was two. He played trumpet in high school and later was a drummer in a rock band. For college he chose the University of Hawaii, basically for surfing, but also began to study ethnomusicology. "I was interested in learning the Indian tabla," recalls John, "but at that time in Hawaii there was no one to teach me. My number two choice was the shakuhachi. I was really fascinated because on the high notes it sounds like a flute and on the lower ones it sound husky, almost like a saxophone. And when I found out it was a five-holed flute made from a piece of bamboo– I was hooked!" He began playing in Hawaii with a Japanese Buddhist priest in 1971.
After several years of intense study in Japan, he received the "shi-han", or master's certificate in the Tozan School of Shakuhachi. At that time he was awarded the honorary name "Kaizan" which means Sea Mountain.
His third record release, Bamboo was awarded Outstanding Album of the Year for 1980 by the Cultural Affairs Agency of the Japanese Ministry of Education– the first time ever a jazz album or foreign artist has been so honored!!
To date, John has performed live and has toured North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. When he is not recording or performing he his spending time making shakuhachi and other bamboo instruments in his home-workshop in the Japanese countryside.
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