FM
Biography
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.
