The Pop Corporation

BBE Music put out good shit, and if you’ve heard their J-Jazz compilations, you’ll know that they’re some of the finest, most adventurous comps around.

In addition to that, they’ve put out a brilliant book chronicling Japanese jazz called J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988, which is a look at some super rare records, great design and compiled by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, who curated the LPs we all love. It also features a forward by Japanese jazz legend Terumasa Hino.

There’s also interviews to pore over, including jazz photographer Tadayuki Naito, pianist Tohru Aizawa, and free-jazz head and record collector extraordinaire Mats Gustafsson.

There’s also a feature on Japanese-only releases by non-Japanese artists, like rare cuts by Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Art Blakey. There’s jazz charts, bits from Gilles Peterson and a special thing about Japanese Blue Note LPs. For the super nerdy, there’s a fine bit on obi strips from someone who collects those – a record dealer and Japanese jazz expert, Yusuke Ogawa.

Outside of Japan, this is going to be a bible for anyone interested in post war jazz, and in it, you’ll get over 500 albums which show Japan’s radical transformation into a global power.

There’s profiles on some of the leading Japanese labels, such as East Wind, King Records, Frasco and Nippon Columbia, not to mention some hip indies from that period like ALM, Three Blind Mice and Aketa’s Disk.

300+ pages, beautiful artwork, geeky stuff, bios on key players like Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masabumi Kikuchi, Masahiko Togashi, Terumasa Hino, Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Takeo Moriyama, Isao Suzuki, and loads more.

It’s a fancy hardback affair, includes a 10 track CD, and is limited to 2,000 copies.

Obviously, it’s not going to be a cheap book this, but for the record collecting nerd, for the fancy book lover, this is definitely worth looking at. Light In The Attic have some copies and you can buy it here.