April 30, 2013

R.I.P., János Starker (July 5, 1924 - April 28, 2013)

János Starker (The Telegraph)
Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88 (npr news)

January 25, 2012

Part 2 of the long-awaited article “A Few Facts about EmArcy label”
is finally available here (sorry, only in Japanese at the moment),
the result of my past reserach, featuring many info on identifying
original first EmArcy pressings (and many more).

January 14, 2012

After all, I could not made significant updates on this site.
I am very sorry for that.
I promise here, I will this year for certain...

And here's my most recent post on my blog:
A research on the contract period between Mercury and Norman Granz

December 24, 2010

Finally I made up my mind to renew this site -
design, visuality, site structure and its backend also -
please be patient for a while until this website is renewed
and gets very active again in the near future.

... and Happy Holidays everyone!

September 26, 2009

“R.I.P., Wilma Cozart Fine”

May 28, 2009

Here comes my newest article on my blog:
“The Guy Who Saved Invaluable EmArcy Test Pressings”

April 16, 2009

I'm still alive :)
You may notice that I have not updated this site very often like I used to do.
Sincererly sorry for that, but I hope I will be active updating this website.

At the same time, I am planning to do heavy overhaul/reconstruction
of this website - including designs, contents and even considering
to use some sort of content management system in the background.

Until then, enjoy the newest page I added,
Mercury's very first 78rpm release way back in 1945.
(also a short article I wrote about this 78rpm)

September 4, 2008

Horst Scherg-san finally finished an impressive art book entitled:

“Classique - Cover Art for Classical Music”

Check it out if you are vintage Classical LP collectors!
(this book includes dozens of scanned images of Mercury Living Presence album covers I provided him)

September 7, 2007

R.I.P., Miyoshi Umeki (aka Nancy Umeki).

Miyoshi Umeki; Recorded American Pop Standards, Won Oscar for 'Sayonara' (Washington Post)

May 29, 2007

Finally, this website has totally renewed forums (web bulletin boards):

Mercury Records Collection Bulletin Board

Feel free to register now and join us!

April 25, 2007

I found interesting Mercury news at Reuters.com:

Reuters.com: Mercury Records rises in U.S. again (Apr. 12, 2007)

May 15, 2006

As of May 11th, as much as 800 titles are covered on this site
(except 45rpm/78rpm singles).
Unfortunately, I will be getting rather busy for a while,
and the next update to this site will be uncertain...

Feb. 20, 2006

The broken computer has been finally replaced,
and the scanning environment is ready again.
At the moment, I am thinking to update this area.

Feb. 7, 2006

The hard-working A3 flatbed scanner and the computer has been out of order :(
This site will not be updated until the new environment is ready...

Sorry for the inconvinience.

Oct. 22, 2005

The below “Newest Addtions” don't include any 78rpms I've got
(although I regularly add 78rpm/45rpm entries little by little).
However, here is an exception - famous gorgeous cloth-bound 78rpm album!

The Jazz Scene (Mercury no number)

Jun. 1, 2005

Third anniversary of this Mercury site!
I will keep updating this site little by little for any longer.

Feb. 12, 2005

The 700th title has been up on this site! (except 45rpm/78rpm singles)
There are still many titles which are not listed on this site yet,
but I will try to keep updating this site little by little...

Dec. 22, 2004

Universal Music Japan is releasing LP reissues of EmArcy/Philips/Verve/Impulse! titles.
I bought two EmArcy titles out of 10 titles out today,
and I found this reissue series is superb.
Take a look at my brief articles here and there on my another site.

Nov. 20, 2004

A little freaky columns section for vinyl junkie is now available.
The first column is Mysteries of “Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago”, which I finished just now.
I think I will add some interesting topics in the near future...

Sep. 18, 2004

I've been very busy this month and I don't have enough time to update this site...
Please be patient, until I restart updating this site.

Aug. 19, 2004

The 600th album has been up on this site -
at the same time I bought a second-hand A3 flatbed scanner
(previously I used a A4 scanner),
which will radically help scanning jacket covers.

June. 21, 2004

A 45rpm list of the subsidiary label Limelight is now available.
It is surprising to see some of the 45rpm lineup are
totally different from familiar LP releaes.

June. 06, 2004

Finally, the renewed version of
Matrix Number Variations pages
are now available.

June. 02, 2004

This month is the second anniversary of this Mercury site!
As of June 2, 2004, there are 553 LPs (excluding 45rpm singles) on this site.

Over 550 Mercury-related LPs acquired in two years - am I doing too much? :)

Mar. 31, 2004

Again, I can't have enough time to update this site...
I tried to add at least one LP on this site every day in vain.

Please stay tuned, until I restart updating this site in the near future.

Mar. 12, 2004

A little congrats to myself - now I have 500 titles on this web site!
(this doesn't include 45rpm single releases)

But there are over a hundred of titles still waiting to be scanned and included on this site.
Anyway I have to keep going forward...

Feb. 03, 2004

If anyone owns either of the following releases (by Illinois Jacquet), please contact me:

Later for the Happenin' c/w Speedliner
Mercury 8951 (78rpm), Clef 8951 (78rpm), Clef 8951x45 (45rpm)

I am currently in a certain research regarding these titles
as well as Mercury 8951x45 (I already own this one).
Your helps and contributions are so welcome. Many thank you in advance!

Dec. 27, 2003

Now over 400 titles in total are listed on this site,
although I couldn't update the site especially in late 2003...
In the coming year 2004, I will try NOT to buy LPs too many, :)
and will rather concentrate on filling up this site from my stock.

Anyway, happy vinyl collecting to you all in the coming year 2004!

Oct. 29, 2003

I have been rather busy these days,
and I cannot have time to update this site,
while there are so many titles waiting to be scanned and listed...

Oct. 17, 2003

Togashi-san and I have been working to merge discographical information on this site
to the Jazz Discography Project, and this time we are happy to publish its draft version.

We will continue to share discographical information of Mercury stuffs
between the JazzDisco site and this site.

Oct. 10, 2003

Seya-san, a famous 78rpm collector in Japan (who also made several contribution to my site)
exhibits the famous Mercury 78rpm album “The Jazz Scene” at his site.

Oct. 06, 2003

EmArcy DEM-2 is a famous compilation LP entitled
“Jazz of Two Decades” (will be appeared on this site shortly).
Recently I obtained a copy of DEM-1, 7-inch LP containing excerpts of early EmArcy tunes.
Judging from the label and the contents, it might be a late 1954 - early 1955 release.