Thunder Live is the third album and first live album released by jazz fusion group Casiopea in 1980. This album marked the first appearance of drummer Akira Jimbo, who replaced Takashi Sasaki that same year.^[1]

Quick Facts Thunder Live, Live album by Casiopea ...

Thunder Live
Live album by Casiopea
Released	April 21, 1980
Recorded	February 8 & 9, 1980
Venue	ABC Hall, Shiba, Tokyo
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	41:56
Label	Alfa Records ALR-6037
Producer	Shunsuke Miyazumi, Shinji Sawada
Casiopea chronology
Super Flight (1979) Thunder Live (1980) Make Up City (1980)

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This is their first live album , and it mainly includes songs from their past two albums, but "I'm Sorry" and "Have A Nice Dream" are included for the first time in this album.

In addition to the technical and detailed ensemble shown in their past two albums, their high performance in the live recordings, and the sophisticated drumming techniques of Akira Jimbo, have earned them even higher praise than ever. In particular, Harvey Mason heard this album during a listening project for a jazz magazine and was impressed, which led to him becoming involved in their subsequent activities, including participating in the production of the album "Eyes of The Mind."

The live performance that included this album also included video, and at the time of its release it existed as a promotional video, but it was not commercially available for a long time. However, more than 10 years later, in 1992, "Have A Nice Dream" and "Black Joke" (different takes on different recording dates from the album) were included in the Casiopea live video collection video software & LD software "ACT ONE". In 1999, the DVD software "CASIOPEA AGAIN" included "Take Me," which was not included in the album, along with "Have A Nice Dream."

There are two types of covers for this album. The jacket of the first edition, released in 1980, featured a caricature of the members in extreme colors, standing against a backdrop of crimson flames. This original jacket has received major criticism, even from Akira Jimbo's mother. However, from the re-press version, the cover was changed to a more subdued color scheme featuring an illustration of lightning falling on the sea surface.

All tunes arranged by Issei Noro.

CASIOPEA are

• Issei Noro - Electric guitar (Yamaha SG-2000)
• Minoru Mukaiya - Keyboards (Yamaha CP-80 and CS-40M, Fender Rhodes Piano, Korg 800DV and PS-3200, Roland VP-330 and ProMars)
• Tetsuo Sakurai - Bass (Fender Electric Bass, Yamaha BB-2000)
• Akira Jimbo - Drums (Yamaha YD-9000R)

• Executive Producer - Kunihiko Murai, Syoro Kawazoe
• producer - Shunsuke Miyazumi, Shinji Sawada
• Recording andMixing engineer - Norio Yoshizawa, Yasuhiko Terada, Katsuhiko Sato

  Recorded live at ABC Hall, Shiba, Tokyo on February 8 and 9, 1980.

• Art Director - Yukimasa Okumura
• Design - Tomohiro Itami
• Illustrator - Makoto Saito
• Cover coordination - Toshinao Tsukui
• Remastering engineer - Kouji Suzuki (2016)

Aside from Casiopea Perfect Live II, all Casiopea lives officially released are cut.

Some songs are missing from the official release, some are not in the right order and some are shorter.