NLQ’s CD Compilation and Multi-Media Series launches in June The Best Of New Latin Quarter, The Jazz & Blues Collection Volume 1 featuring digitally remastered performances by Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, Keely Smith, Chubby Checker, Louis Armstrong, Patti Page, Julie London, Bobby Troup and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Beginning in 1942, Tokyo’s New Latin Quarter, named and patterned after the famed New York City Latin Quarter, hosted a veritable who’s who of American and UK jazz and pop legends: Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pat Boone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis, Ray Charles, James Brown, B.B. King, Tom Jones, The Supremes and Chubby Checker, among many others. Now, thanks to an accidental discovery of hundreds of hours of tapes from these live vintage performances, the formation of a new company has arisen. The Tokyo Nightclub Organization has established record, documentary and publishing divisions to release these historic, never-before-heard archival live recordings.
There will be five CDs released in 2010, beginning with The Best of New Latin Quarter, The Jazz & Blues Collection Volume 1. 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." The set also includes performances by Nancy Wilson, Keely Smith, Louis Armstrong featuring Junnie Brown, Patti Page, Julie London, Europe’s Caterina Valente, Bobby Troop, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Harry James Orchestra and The Mills Brothers.
Volume 2 is set for release July 1, with Volume 3 to follow August 3.