I had a system some time ago, whereby I rewarded my own good behaviour – using lolly saved – with weekly and monthly rewards. Those habit, both hood and bad, ceased. But then the music buying one kind of came back, only more freestyle.
And over the same period an already present interest in J-Jazz, or Japanese jazz, grew somewhat. Partially thanks to this terrific book:
So it was that some of my rewards, under that aforementioned dispensation – and poss’ even the above book itself? – were CDs of J-Jazz.
Later on I discovered that not only did/does Japan produce it’s own fab’ jazz, but they also reissue stuff from elsewhere, even the US, the birthplace of jazz, that’s either nigh on impossible to get elsewhere, or way too costly.
One particular development of note for me, is the Mainstream records reissue series. Hear the lion roar!
I’m particularly interested in the stuff released in ‘72. But most of the 300 Series is of interest to me. And it all started with dad’s record of organist Charles Kynard, Your Mama Don’t Dance.
Only yesterday another batch of Mainstream reissues arrived from Japan, including the three-CD set pictured at the top of this post, by another keys player, Mike Longo. These three CDs were just ¥1,800, or £8.75. Amazing value!
Longo is or was perhaps best known, back in the day, for his tenure with Dizzy Gillespie.
