''Mint Jams'' is a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

by Japanese

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band

Casiopea , is a Japanese jazz fusion band formed in 1976 by guitarist Issei Noro, bassist Tetsuo Sakurai, drummer Tohru "Rika" Suzuki, and keyboardist Hidehiko Koike. In 1977, keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya and drummer Takashi Sasaki ( ja) replaced Koik ...

, released on May 21, 1982 by

Alfa Records , originally a publisher known as Alfa Music Ltd. and later succeeded by record company Alfa Music Inc., was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Recor ...

. The album's title is an arrangement of the band members' first and last initials. This album is widely considered to be Casiopea's best, as it combines their live dynamism and precision with careful studio work.

Background and recording

expanded into Europe, it was planned to produce an album for Europe by one of its artists, Casiopea. Initially, it was planned to be a

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products, such as video game co ...

of songs from previous albums, but was later turned into a live album. ''Mint Jams'' was also Casiopea's first album to mainly feature the

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: People * Torakusu Yamaha, a Japanese businessman and founder of the Yamaha Corporation Companies * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organi ...

GS-1 FM synthesizer, played by

Minoru Mukaiya is a Japanese musician best known as the former keyboardist of the jazz fusion band Casiopea and producer of the Train Simulator series of Japanese video games. Mukaiya joined Casiopea during its formation in 1977 (with guitarist Issei Noro, d ...

; this synthesizer was subsequently used in many of their live performances. Live sound recordings from a two-day performance at Tokyo Kaikan were used and subsequently remixed at Alfa Studio 'A' by Shunsuke Miyazami, Satoshi Nakao, Norio Yoshizawa, and Atsushi Saito. The songs were arranged in advance with studio work in mind. To achieve the likeness of a studio quality sound, the audience noise from the Chuo Kaikan live performances were cut from the mix, except for during the bass guitar and drum solos in "Domino Line", and the latter-half part of "Swear" which include the drum and piano solo. There were many changes in the arrangements in post-production: "Tears of the Star" had a removed 30-second intro, "Domino Line" has bass and drum solos from both concert dates, the outro for "Swear" was cut by 40 seconds, "Midnight Rendezvous" had clap sound effects added, and "Time Limit" had more than a minute removed. Besides the title of the album being an arrangement of the band members' first and last initials, it uses the word "mint" to imply a "mint condition" and "high performance". The word "jams" describe their live performance of which the source material was taken from. The European version of ''Mint Jams'' was released the same year as the Japanese release. The following year, in 1983, when Casiopea visited London to record the album '' Jive Jive'', a promotional live concert was held.

Track listing

Personnel

Casiopea: *

Issei Noro is a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist who is one of the founding members and the main composer of the band Casiopea. He has released 6 solo albums and a compilation. He also works as an instructor of a guitar clinic, and as a producer. In 1983, ...

–

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

(

SG-2000),

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

– keyboards ( Yamaha GS-1, CS-70M, CP-35,

Moog Source The Moog Source is a monophonic Z80 microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 1981 to 1985. The Source was Moog's first synthesizer to offer patch memory storage. The design was also the first (and only) Moog ...

, Roland Vocoder Plus) *

Tetsuo Sakurai is a Japanese bassist. To date, he has released a total of 37 albums as a member of Casiopea and Jimsaku and solo artist, and has also made 3 bass instructional videos. History Tetsuo Sakurai started playing bass when he was 13 years old. In 1 ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

( Yamaha BB-2000) *

Akira Jimbo , is a Japanese jazz fusion drummer, best known as the drummer for the Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea in 3 separate stints (1980-1989, 1997-2006 and 2012-2022). Aside from his work with Casiopea, Jimbo has also participated in side projects ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(Yamaha YD-9000R),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Production: * Shunsuke Miyazumi – producer * Satoshi Nakao – associate producer * Norio Yoshizawa –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Atsushi Saito – assistant engineer * Toshinao Tsukui – art director * Masao Hiruma – illustration and design * Kouji Suzuki – remastering engineer (2016 reissue)

Release history

External links

* *

Full Live

Aside from '' Casiopea Perfect Live II'', all Casiopea lives officially released are cut. Some songs are missing from the official release, some are not in the right order and some are shorter. "Galactic Funk" and "Tears of the Star" were played with special intros.

References

1982 live albums 1982 in Japanese music Casiopea live albums Alfa Records live albums {{1980s-jazz-album-stub