Simply fantastic 2 CD set of Japanese meets Latin American music, subtitled The Monumental Recordings 1931-1957, 48 masterpieces of Latin-American music in Japan. Japanese festival and folk tunes are given a latin backing, with Japanese instrumentation, or latin tunes are sung in Japanese with a distinctly Oriental flavour. The names of the tunes will give you an idea; Rumba Tokyo, Tokyo Conga, Mambo China, Champon Rumba, Pachinko Mambo, Rumba Ginza, Japanese Calypso. Artists include Tetsu Kamen, Chiyoko Kobayashi, Kanako Kami, Taeko Nose, Ranko Edogawa, Ryoko Fujiwara, Aiko Saida, Akira Kishi, Eiko Hirai, Aiko Mimasu, Shigeo Kusonoki, Hamako Watanabe, Keiko Ikuta, Asami Kuji, Teruko Akatsuki, Clark Johnston, Izumi Yukimura, Michiko Hamamura, Tomoko Takara, Meiji University Mandolin Club. Some of the earliest world music mixtures of Oriental and Latin music and it all sounds wonderfully exotic, in the best sense of the word.
