My A&M finds in Japan today...

[Mr Bill]

As my deployment over here in Japan winds down, I am desperatley trying round up the few A&M items I've been dying to locate. Today was particularly successful, landing the following:
--Bossa Rio (Tower must've finally re-stocked it after Yokohama Mike bought weeks ago)
--Complete Roger Nichols/Small Circle (an unexpected find)
and Two Non-A&M of interest...
--The second ALMOSounds disc (the of the last gaps in my collection there) and one that LPJim and I wondered if it ever got released: Sherree Ford-Payne. Produced by Herb Alpert (and featuring him on trumpet)
--A non-A&M TJB collection called Best Selection -- it's not even an a label I recognize: Jasrac. No booklet, but there is a catalog of TONS of others in the series. Weird. But none of the 18 tunes isn't already on CD somewhere else. Like a hybrid of GH, GH2, Solid Brass and 4sider. May become eBay fodder...

The last store I went to even gave me the opportunity to order what I've been looking for. Alas most are out of print (despite being available on AmazonJP) and a few will take longer to get in the store than I have left. The good news is one, Shango (SP4195) is in stock at another store and will be sent over for me to pick up in a few days! Sadly no luck with the Letta Mbulus or Emitt Rhodes... Still looking for the two B66's I really want: Ye-Me-Le and Primal Roots. Plenty of the others around, though (but $24 is a bit steep for Love Music, don't you think?)!

Other fun finds:
IRS - Guitar Speak (no speak #008)
IRS - Christmas Thee Psykick blah blah (horrid heavy metal; IRS was going down fast at this point)
And -- because I like the half dozen or so George Shearing cuts with in my growing Ultr-Lounge series collection and because Neil always raves about him -- I picked up a Shearing Verve 50th anniv CD September in the Rain. In glorious MONO!
Many of you know I'm a fan of the "non-standard" format. ie: 10", CD3, 7" 33rpms, 12" 45rpms, etc. Well this thing is a regular CD in a round rattan box. A Danish/German band called "The William Breuker Kollektief." Tracks 1 thru 8 are Heibel and 9 thru 13 are The Critic. Just cursory listen so far, but imagine what you would have if Jack Daugherty (as in the Class of 1971) and Paul Winter collaborated on writing and producing "Kronos Quartet does Coltrane for Big Band style." One of those "happy finds."

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

Cool you found the Nichols CD--with the bonus single tracks, it collects everything in one place. Hope you found good prices on those A&Ms!

There are many good Shearing recordings on the Capitol label (which is the source for those Ultra Lounge discs, IIRC), although many of them have never been on CD. I still am waiting for "Latin Escapade" to see daylight--a few LP copies later and I STILL don't have a great copy of it.

Darn...no luck on Santana on SACD either. Sony used to have a listing of which stores in Japan carried those, although, heck if I know where I'd find that list!

 

[Mike]

Hey Bill,
On a hot tip from a friend, I went to a record shop in Shinjuku called “Disc Union”. They had darn near all the Sergio Mendes CD’s including “Home Cooking” and the ones you’re looking for too. Here are a couple of reviews on the place.

1. Seven floors of music from every genre. Kind of hard to find yet they blast the music on the first floor so just follow your ear. Great selection of used cds for dirt-cheap.

2. Trashy hole in the wall yet cool. Great posters up the narrow staircase of new and old poster glam and punk bands.

http://www.diskunion.co.jp/

Hope you've enjoyed your stay in Japan.

Take care,
Mike

 

[Mr Bill]

Yep. Disc-Union is the place my friend recommended and they're the ones who ordered the discs I was looking for -- getting them from their main store in Shinjuku.

I wish I had more time to go check it out myself. Hell, I never even got to Tokyo Disneyrand this trip! And too bad we never "connected" and got together (with Rocket man who's down in Yokosuka and, I suspect, a fellow Navy guy).

Well, I have 5 more years before I retire so it's not impossible for me to make it back here once again...

--Mr Bill
truly fascinated and in love with Japan, the food and the culture

 

[Mike]

Like they say at "Disneyrand" it's a small, small, world. We'll probably bump into each other at Tower Records, and won't even know it!

Go "old" Navy...
Mike

 

[Mr Bill]

I suspect we very well may have been in Tower at the same time. It's just too rude to walk up to a stranger and ask if they're Yokosuka Mike or Mr Bill, right? Your job doesn't by any chance, have anything to do with the Navy, does it?

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike]

Yes, I'm retired Navy, and am curently a USCS employee of the Navy. I work at the Ship Repair Facility.

Having read many of your posts, I don't think you'd be too shy to walk up to a stranger and say "I'm Mr. Bill, who are you".

 

[Rudy]

I've met Mr Bill...he doesn't bite.

 

[Mr Bill]

Not very hard anyway!

I'm going to be down at the Yoko base later this week doing turnover with my relief. Maybe I'll look you up! Yoko is a place we like visiting since our base (Atsugi) has no Sbarro and the one there is pretty good!

Glad you went to the Sergio concert -- I thought about it, but the ticket prices (even for an E7) were a bit more than I could spare at the moment...

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike]

Bill,

Sounds good to me. Just post a day, time and place and I'll meet you there. I don't want to interfere with your turn over, but it would be nice to say hello.

Mike