Blue Note a hit in Japan

[brownie]

From an article in Mainichi, one of the top Japanese newspapers (selling several million copies daily)...

BLUE NOTE'S JAZZ ALBUMS A SMASH HIT IN JAPAN

The first 100 titles in series of jazz albums released in Japan by the famous American jazz label Blue Note Records have sold a combined 1 million copies, a feat in the jazz world where a new album is considered a hit if it sells 10,000 copies.

Blue Note built up the golden age of modern jazz mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. It represents symbolic jazz musicians such as Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins and Horace Silver.

The 100 albums are the first installment of Blue Note's "1500 Series" that is being marketed in Japan. Sales of the series began in June last year. Each CD costs 1,500 yen, and at the end of the year, a campaign was introduced to give one album away to customers who bought three.

Sales of the albums were apparently fueled by new jazz enthusiasts and those who wanted to replace LPs. Over 50,000 people reportedly applied for free albums during the campaign.

The top selling album is Sonny Clark's "Cool Struttin'," at 45,000 copies. In second and third place are "Something Else" by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis (35,000 copies), and "Blue Train" by John Coltrane (30,000 copies). Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" stands in fourth place, followed by Bud Powell's "The Scene Changes."

The overwhelming popularity of "Cool Struttin'" separates Japan from other countries, where the album has not registered as many sales.

The second installment in Blue Note's series featuring 200 albums will go on sale this month. Applications for the "buy three get one free campaign" will open on July 21. (Mainichi)

[JohnJ]

Thanks for that Brownie, somehow I missed the article. 1 million copies, pretty impressive. I know that 'Cool Struttin' is very popular here, I remember my boss talking about it even though he has very few jazz recordings.

[Guy Berger]

Thanks for that Brownie, somehow I missed the article. 1 million copies, pretty impressive. I know that 'Cool Struttin' is very popular here, I remember my boss talking about it even though he has very few jazz recordings.

←

Bob Blumenthal mentions CS's Japanese popularity in his RVG liner note. I love the album and all, but it's weird to think of it as "very popular".

Guy

[Dan Gould]

Interesting that Something Else is referred to as by Cannonball and Miles. I can't imagine this is how its marketed here, given the Japanese fixation on preserving the albums exactly as they were originally presented, so why would the writer add Miles as co-leader?