Pizzicato Five

My friend Ken Heaton started going to Japan in the early 90’s. He found friends who turned him on to new Japanese music, and he used to send me cassettes of it. This is how I first heard of Pizzicato Five. In the mid-90’s, I was working at my final hippie record store job, and one day, a guy popped his head into my “office” and asked if I could order any CD’s by Pizzicato Five – this was my friend David Ponak.

David told me that he heard that Pizzicato Five was coming to Los Angeles, for a “meet ‘n’ greet”. We met Konishi-san and Nomiya-san in the summer / fall of ’94, at some art gallery on Fairfax Ave. Konishi & I talked record collecting. Their managers were both from New York. Both David and I were Japan-bound, anyway. Now we had someone to look up in Tokyo! (David & I later followed them to San Francisco!)

My first real visit to Japan was in fall ’94, with Ken Heaton. I brought some records for Konishi-san. I saw a concert by Nomiya-san at the Nissin Power Station – some sort of “Tribute to Marc Bolan”. Ken introduced me to a wonderful woman named Naoko Iwano, who remained a good friend until her untimely death in 2001 (from leukemia).

I also eventually gave Konishi-san some music videos; he introduced me to some other neat people in Tokyo. We rode the Pizzicato Five wave for a good few years, roughly ’94 – ’01. I have lots of their stuff. My favorite is still “Bossa Nova 2001” (the first full-length CD by them that I ever heard). I have 88 P5 titles in my collection, the highlights of which are:

CD CA ET LA DU JAPON READYMADE COCP-50460

2001 16 TRKS

CD5 DARLIN' OF DISCOTHEQUE E.P. READYMADE COCA-50068

1999 5 TRK CD EP CD5

12" HISTORY OF PIZZICATO FIVE READYMADE TDJL-91445

1997 4 TRKS promo-only

CD INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOY & PLAYGIRL READYMADE COCP-30054

1998 13 TRKS special package

CD5 NONSTOP TO TOKYO E.P. READYMADE COCA-50119

1999 5 TRK CD EP CD5

CD PIZZICATO FIVE TM READYMADE COCP-50186

1999 12 TRKS

CD REMIXES 2000 READYMADE COCP-50255

2000 7 TRKS Cubismo Grafico etc.

CD HI, GUYS! LET ME TEACH YOU SEVEN GODS COCA-7558

1991 14 TRKS

CD READYMADE RECORDINGS E.P. SEVEN GODS COCA-5134

1991 7 TRKS

CD THIS YEAR'S GIRL SEVEN GODS COCA-7575

1991 18 TRKS

CD BOSSA NOVA 2001 TRIAD JPN COCA-10837

1993 16 TRKS slipcase

CD COMBINAISON SPACIALE E.P. TRIAD JPN COCA-13433

1996 6 TRKS

CD EXPO 2001 TRIAD JPN COCA-11243

1993 9 TRKS remixes, plastic slipcase

LPx2 FREE SOUL 2001 TRIAD JPN COJA-9154/5

1993 11 TRKS poster

CD GREAT WHITE WONDER TRIAD JPN COCA-13713

1996 20 TRK Collection

CD HAPPY END OF THE WORLD TRIAD JPN COCA-14242

1997 13 TRKS promo

CD INSTANT REPLAY TRIAD JPN COCA-10650

1993 12 TRKS

CD KARAOKES AND STACK-O-TRACKS promo TRIAD JPN TDCL-91114

1995 17 TRKS promo-only

CD OVERDOSE TRIAD JPN COCA-11999

1994 13 TRKS slipcase

LPx2 PIZZICATO FREE SOUL TRIAD JPN COJA-9072/3

1992 10 TRKS remixes, poster

CD ROMANTIQUE 96 TRIAD JPN COCA-12886

1995 16 TRKS

CD SISTER FREEDOM TAPES TRIAD JPN COCA-13434

1996 9 TRKS

CD SOUVENIR 2001 TRIAD JPN COCA-10897

1993 15 TRKS remixes

CD SWEET PIZZICATO FIVE TRIAD JPN COCA-10178

1992 9 TRKS

CD TELEVISION'S WORKSHOP, A TRIAD JPN COCA-11506

1994 8 TRKS large booklet

The P5 office also gave me many vinyl-only promos; I even had the good fortune to once visit the main office of Nippon Columbia Records in Tokyo. The man who over-saw P5’s releases was very kind to David and I. I saw them live several times, always in the US. I really kept up with all of their core releases from approx. ’94 – ’01.

The number of Japanese artist title I was getting really increased once I started going to Japan in ’94. And I’ve been 9 or 10 times now!

I have also visited the offices of other Japanese record companies (Polystar and File), but – those are another story (both treated me excellently!).

I definitely miss my friend Naoko, she helped me in many aspects. She translated for me, she helped me find out about events whenever I would visit Tokyo. She would discuss Japanese artists with me.

And I also miss Pizzicato Five. They were like a unifying thread for a while there. I tried collecting everything that Konishi-san produced, but it got out of hand. Just too many releases to even try. And I got out of touch with Tom and Terry, his NY managers.

And it’s cool that I have my name in several P5 albums – I’m in the booklet for their first US Matador release (“Music Is Organized by Sound”) and in the booklet that came with the Japanese issue of “Romantique 96”, both times thanks to their New York managers.

It was also through Konishi-san that I got to meet Keigo Oyamada, Tomoyuki Tanaka and Hideki Kaji – and lots of other people. All of those deserve their own story (especially all of the Trattoria acts!).

All hail Japanese pop music!