With more than 600 full colour, and over 50 monochrome illustrations, there’s masses here to enjoy.
The cover – both back and front are made to look like a groovy LP sleeve – was designed by no less a luminary of jazz photography and design than the one and only Bill Claxton!
First published in Japan, in 1993, I’ve had my bi-lingual copy (Japanese/English) for many, many years, now. Poss as far back as ‘93? I bought it for the images. And until today I’d not read much if any of the text!
So, today I’m starting to read some of it. Immediately, the foreward type bit, on the inside flap of the ‘dust jacket’, strikes a chord. Noaki Mukoda, a photographer who has compiled all the covers here, was enchanted by the Jazz On A Summer’s Day movie, as a student (as was I!).
But he also fed his love of jazz albums in those most Japanese of places, the Kissa. We didn’t have such places here. Only bookshops and record stores. Some dedicated, in whole or in part, to jazz. For more about Kissa, go here.