Hidehiko Matsumoto And Sleepy Latin Band, Youichi Suzuki And Latin Companion, Shoji Yokouchi & His Allstar Latin Combo

condition (records/cover): NM / VG+ (light foxing inside gatefold)

Gatefold sleeve. No obi.

Japan's Latin boom predates the mood-tenor era by a decade; Tokyo had mambo bands in the fifties, and by the sixties every major had a house Latin orchestra. Victor's were Hidehiko Matsumoto's Sleepy Latin Band, Youichi Suzuki's Latin Companion and Shoji Yokouchi's All-Star Latin Combo, and this double set puts all three on four sides of after-hours bolero, danzón and slow rumba.

Yokouchi is the name to watch: the guitarist whose Greenfield trio record became a Japanese jazz grail, here in his day job, playing Latin rhythm guitar with the same clean attack. The whole set is beautifully recorded, Victor's engineers being among the best in the country. Japanese pressing, gatefold.