Nearly fifty years after American legends took the stage at Tokyo’s famed New Latin Quarter, original live recordings of artists such as Nat “King” Cole, Nancy Wilson, Chubby Checker, Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis, Jr. were accidentally found.
To celebrate this amazing discovery, the many recordings of these superstar acts have been remastered to share with music lovers around the world. The first release of the compilation CDs, The Best of New Latin Quarter, Jazz & Blues, Volume 1, climbed to # 9 this week on The Billboard Traditional Jazz Chart and the Billboard Jazz Album Chart.
One of the few times a Japanese Indie label has charted on Billboard, the CD is gaining spins on more than 200 stations in the U.S., along with nationally syndicated programs such as Music Of Your Life, Cable Radio Network and many more.
This set features a rare glimpse of Chubby Checker in blues ballad mode, performing “Georgia On My Mind” and Nat “King” Cole gracing the Sinatra associated “The Way You Look Tonight.” Additional compilations are expected to be released in 2010.
Named and patterned after the famed New York City Latin Quarter nightclub that hosted legendary artists since 1942, Tokyo’s New Latin Quarter—Japan’s jewel of a nightclub built on the site of the suspiciously destroyed original Latin Quarter—hosted a veritable who’s who of American and UK jazz and pop legends from 1959-1989.
Jay Warner’s worldwide publishing organization National League Music is setting up global distribution for an incredible series of digitally re-mastered “Western Music Comes East” compilations and multi-media projects featuring these rare unearthed treasures. In the U.S., distribution will be handled by Omni/Select-O-Hits.
“Over 300 llive recordings of artists who appeared at New Latin Quarter have been languishing for almost 50 years,” says Shintaro Yamamoto, Chairman on the newly formed New Latin Quarter (NLQ) Entertainment. “The new alliance of NLQ Entertainment, Kosaido Akatsuki Corporation of Japan, Parteneri-Whitehouse Alliance Japan and worldwide publishing organization National League Music has changed all that.”