Akiko Yano was barely 21 years old when she released her debut album, Japanese Girl. While she had studied classical and jazz piano, her first album found her pivoting towards pop without much regard for genre distinctions. In this she found willing allies in recruiting Lowell George and members of LIttle Feat. As Yano recalled, their English-Japanese exchanges were awkward, but even without translation, George’s tremulous slide makes every song quiver with a palpable thrill. “Kuma” offers one of the only instances where you can hear George’s slide navigate an old Japanese melody and also hear him take a turn on shakuhachi.