The Jook Festival was held on March 12 at the Akasaka Blitz. The artist were Long John Hunter, Walter "Wolfman" Washington and The Roadmasters, and Bob Log III. It was too bad that the crowd in attendance was so little, but I think each one of them played pretty good showing their unique styles.

Long John Hunter seemed a little bit uncomfortable about the crowd being quiet and not responding much to what he was saying, though. But crowd got excited when he came down to the audience and placed his axe on the lap of one of the girls in crowd and played it. Bob Log III played in the hilarious solo style pretty much like he did in his first album on Fat Possum. The encore jam with all three together was interesting, too. The tune was "Every Day I Have The Blues", and the Wolfman was laughing himself away when Bob Log III started to play the slide guitar with his hilarious moves. Long John and the Wolfman looked like they knew each other well, but Iit looked like they had never seen Bob perform before. Probably the best one was the Wolfman. His band was tight and funky, and sounded much better than his recent Bullseye Blues release.

Koichi Fujii and Hitoshi Seki has released a new album "Atsukan to Chuka" (translation: Hot Sake and Chinese Food). It's their 2nd album as a duo. Fujii is also known as the saxman for the band Ushakoda, and Hitoshi Seki is the guitarist of Sapporo-based blues band Baker Shop Boogie. The album is colored with the humorous character of Fujii. He also plays very good ukulele and harmonica on it.

Guitarist JoJo Sawado has also released a new album, his second, from the new Okra label. It's titled "Spoodie Woodie" (OG-001), and features variety of music ranging from Chicago blues to Hawaiian. The musicians backing him up include local favorites such as Kotetsu Sasaki on harp, and New Orleans flavored pianist Yancey Adachi. The CD release party will be at Jirokichi on April 9 with all of the musicians on the record joining JoJo.

Now for upcoming concert events...Japan Blues Carnival will be coming in May, and this year the featured artist will be Dr. John, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Popa Chubby, Atsuki Kimura & Junji Ariyama, and George Pie. The dates in Tokyo are May 29 and 30 at the Hibiya Outdoor Amphitheater and the artists will be touring the other cities, too.

The Blues & Soul Revue 1999 planned in July will feature Otis Clay and Jimmy Johnson. A.C. Reed will be appearing as a special guest for the Jimmy Johnson Band. The dates in Tokyo are July 23 and 24, both at the On Air East. Should be a great show!

P-Vine Records has released 5CD series of Modern/Kent Blues Treasures. Each CD represent one unique style of blues (see below), and most of the stuff on them are on CD for the first time. There are some previously unreleased tracks well worth hearing, too.

Houston Jump 1950's (PCD-3057)
featuring King Curtis, Clarence Garlow, Peppermint Harris, etc.

Juke Joing Blues 1950's (PCD-3058)
featuring Rufus Thomas, Long Gone Miles with George Smith, etc.

Barrelhouse & Rockin' Blues 1950's (PCD-3059)
featuring Big Duke Henderson, Gene Phillips, etc.

West Coast Modern Blues 1960's (PCD-3060)
featuring T-Bone Walker, Stacy Johnson, King Solomon, etc.

Funky Blues 1960's & 1970's (PCD-3061)
featuring Lowell Fulson, Arthur Adams, Smokey Wilson, etc.

P-Vine will also be releasing the CD "And this is Maxwell Street". This is a live recording from Maxwell Street in 1964 which includes the performances by Robert Nighthawk, Johnny Young, Big John Wrencher, John Lee Granderson, Carey Bell and others. It's been a while since the project for releasing this CD has started, and finally, here it is! Robert Nighthawk's performance is the same one you hear on the Rounder CD "Live On Maxwell Street - 1964", but on the new CD, some of the tracks edited on Rounder release will appear in full length. And also the sound quality is clearly better. (That is because of the fact that while this new CD was directly mastered from the original films shot by Mike Shea, the Rounder release was made out of bootleg tapes provided by Norman Dayron which was copied from the original films.) This will be released as a 2CD set (PCD-5527/8) on May 25. Check it out! No plans yet for this CD to be released outside Japan. For more information, see the website http://members.aol.com/maxwellstr/.

The April concerts will include Peter Green who will be coming to Japan for the very first time. Also on April 4, Ban Ban Bazaar and Mitsuyoshi Azuma & The Swingin' Boppers are billed together at the Club Que in Shimokitazawa in an event named "Tamashii No Brass Band" (translation: Brass Band of Soul).

(3/27/99)