Nippon Swing Time Once Again ①
Announcement of New Releases
Three years have passed since the previous 'Nippon Swing Time vol. 1', and we are now ready to release 'Nippon Swing Time vol. 2'.
During this time, the trade name of Victor Entertainment has undergone a minor change, and this release will be from Victor Entertainment, Inc., which aims to revive the Victor brand.
Features of Nippon Swing Time
This anthology features 19 tracks on CD for the first time, 6 of which are being reissued for the first time.
This was not a conscious effort to include new material from the start, but rather a figure that emerged after tallying the results later.
In selecting the songs, I re-examined past albums by my predecessors and added a new perspective and sensibility to them.
To speak here about the circumstances of pre-war jazz reissues at Victor Entertainment,
in 1976, a definitive 10-LP set titled 'History of Japanese Jazz and Popular Music (Pre-war Edition)', supervised by Hisamitsu Noguchi and Masahisa Segawa, was created, covering not only jazz songs but also Latin music such as tango and rumba, as well as instrumental jazz.
Since then, several sets supervised by the late Masahisa Segawa have been compiled around the year 2000, but in terms of content, they are re-assemblies of the previous LP set.
It was the well-categorized 'History of Japanese Jazz and Popular Music (Pre-war Edition)' that made the 'Victor History of Jazz and Popular Music' possible.
When compiling 'Nippon Swing Time vol. 1' in 2021, I naturally referred to the aforementioned album groups,
but since CDs are a medium unsuited for the clear, side-by-side categorization of LPs, I fundamentally changed my perspective on song selection.
The 1976 anthology is perfect, but simply connecting those tracks as they are would not make for a good CD.
A shift to a completely different perspective was necessary. That perspective is the concept of 'Swing Time' and the 'Swing Era'.
What kind of album is vol. 2?
For vol. 2, rather than leftovers from past anthologies, I chose takes that I find interesting from a modern perspective, from both previously reissued and unreleased sources.
In particular, I placed great importance on the feeling of swing this time.
When it comes to swing, the image is inevitably around the 10th year of the Showa era (1935).
So, I made the bold decision to limit the early Showa era to only the truly necessary takes, and compiled the album mainly focusing on the 10s of the Showa era (1935-1944).
As a major feature of this anthology, I have included as much instrumental jazz as possible.
From past experience, I have lamented that pre-war instrumental jazz is either not evaluated at all or is rather disparaged.
The Amazon reviews of Teichiku's instrumental jazz, for example, are terrible, with people unfolding their own self-centered theories.
However, it is also a fact that pre-war instrumental jazz has been passionately supported by modern jazz musicians.
I was greatly helped by their empathy for jazz that spans a great distance in time.
This time, since I received the go-ahead from Producer Hori, I selected instrumental pieces right up to the limit of not being overbearing.
If I were to be greedy, there would be no end to it, but I am proud that I have achieved the best selection possible for these 2 discs and 24 tracks. (To be continued)