By Stuart Levine

I recently attended a big jazz vinyl record sale held by “Jazz Tokyo,” the flagship store of Japan’s Disk Union retail chain. They do this twice a year during Golden Week, a holiday in Japan, and again at the end of the year. The store had accumulated hundreds of used Blue Notes, putting many on the wall but most in the racks. Gems were at hand and serious crate digging commenced upon the store opening at 11:00 am. My friend, Charles Pearlman, who is the eBay seller known as “Strictly Headies,” flew out from Portland, Oregon. Together, we dug and came away with some impressive titles, two of which were Mobley 1568 and 1550. As for the condition, I’d say 1568 VG+/VG+ and 1550 NM-/NM-

I do believe luck played a part in our successful day there at Jazz Tokyo. You see, I had carried with me a paper fortune earlier acquired from a visit to a Shinto shrine in the neighborhood where I live in Japan. As Charlie and I waited among many others outside the store for it to open, we received random numbers, giving us our positions in line. I got #8 and he #15. Well, since he had traveled such a long distance, I just had to give him my lower number, right? Suffice to say, his favorable position and digging prowess got him the two Mobleys.

But I would be remiss not to mention a box of records Charlie bought on another day from a private collector. There was a pristine stereo Waltz for Debby, Saxophone Colossus with a turquoise-tinted cover (first?) and Jackie McLean’s the New Tradition on Ad Lib. You know the one – with that gorgeous cover.  And clean! Charlie says, “It plays quiet as a mouse pissin’ on cotton.” Damn if they don’t have the records in Japan.

One of our readers living in Japan recently sent a note with a story to share so I said, please, write it up. He did and here it is:

By Stuart Levine

I am a regular reader (living in Japan), who especially enjoys Al’s record-collecting adventures. Well I have one of my own to share with the Jazz Collector community. It all started last September in Tokyo. I had heard of Disk Union and wanted to see it for myself. Perhaps, I could score on a nice LP.   When I got off the train at my exit, I could immediately see it to my left – an impressive brick building with a large Disk Union window sign. The only problem was this was not the store noted for its jazz inventory. The real deal, Disk Union “Jazz Tokyo” was about six blocks away. Had it not been for a fellow Southern Californian (wearing a Dodgers cap) walking me over to the right store, I would have come away from this experience very disappointed. My good fortune really started when I was introduced to the head buyer of used jazz vinyl, a soft-spoken gentleman named Katsu. He invited me to come back three months later on Dec. 19th when the store was having a big Blue Note record sale, to the tune of 500 original mono and stereo LPs.

I got back to Tokyo the day before the sale, spent a night in a hotel and was #2 in line outside the store the next morning (the line had started forming at 5:00 a.m.). It was first come, first served. I asked the guy in front of me what record(s) he was looking for. He said, “J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536 and Horace Parlan’s “Us Three.” Luckily, he was not after True Blue. But I sure was, and Jazz Tokyo had a nice VG++/VG++ copy. That’s when the fun began. I raced over to the wall where 4041 was placed, only to feel hands across my back and shoulder. Were these normally well- mannered Japanese climbing over my body in an attempt to steal True Blue from my rightful grasp? To make a long story short, I took possession of True Blue, paid $1,600 (200,000 yen).

For more on the Blue Note sale, follow this link. There, you’ll see the images of all those records and by scrolling down, more details on each one.

http://blog-jazztokyo.diskunion.net/Entry/22011/