ROB MULLINS-TOKYO NIGHTS-1990
    A definitive historical jazz album of the 90's.

NOW STREAMING on Apple Music amazon.com  SPOTIFY  

Band Project 1990
Nova Records original release
Digital release distributed by Sony/Orchard
"Early Works: The 90's" by Rob Mullins   
Songs published through BMG Worldwide
Description:  High energy project that yield two ballad radio hits in "No Secrets" and "B 4 U Go.".
Sound: Features high energy playing by all members and great ballad work.

  

01.   Tokyo Nights (Mullins) - :24
02.   Tokyo Nights (Mullins) - 5:32
03.   Roppongi Crossing (Mullins) - 4:53
04.   Jaco Does the Weather (Mullins) - 6:04
05.   Memory Lane (Mullins) - 5:27
06.   Mia's Dream (Mullins) - 4:56
07.   Let's Pretend (Mullins) - 6:01
08.   Tarantula (Mullins) - 4:09
09.   Boyz Will B Boyz (Mullins) - 6:13
10.   B 4 U Go (Mullins) - 6:27
11.   No Secrets (Mullins) - 4:22

Early Works The 90's has bonus tracks from that era, please stream Early Works the 90's to hear all the songs.
 

Personnel

Recorded 1989-1990 at Colorado Sound Westminster, CO
Producer: Rob Mullins
Engineer-Kevin Clock
Mixed by Kevin Clock

   
All originals published by Rob Mullins Publishing (BMI).
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 1988-2023  Rob Mullins Publishing

ALBUM NOTES by Rob Mullins

Historical Perspective
   
In 1990, Jazz Radio and the industry were far more open minded than today in 2023.
There was no public internet. People relied on radio stations to be exposed to new music
and this album was a huge radio success both in the US and in Japan which was the topic
of the project.
While out at the jazz club "The Baked Potato" one night, I met a jazz promoter from Tokyo
named Paul (Masoto) Morita who was looking to sign American jazz artists to King Records
which was and still is an active Japanese record company.
Paul and I became instant friends because of our shared musical tastes and he arranged for
my band to go into the studio to create the "Tokyo Nights" album. Jazz fusion was experiencing
some very transitional times at that time because of the many diverse things going on culturally
and technilogically. The drum machine had been invented. Synthesizers such as the Roland
JX-8P and Juno 106 were becoming popular. Radio was still allowing serious improvisations
such as Ernie Watts' "wild" solo at the end of the title track "Tokyo Nights."

The concept of "an album" was very much in place and I did my best to capture my experiences
in Japan musically on the album. Album promoters were always looking for a single or hit song
to send to radio stations and the two songs that radio put into heavy rotation were "B 4 U Go"
and "No Secrets."  "No Secrets" eventually became the theme song for the weather segment at
NHK Television in Japan and people in Japan knew that when they heard the intro to that song,
the weather forecast for the day would follow. This went on for almost 30 years until the financial
crash of 2008 when NHK stopped paying the fees to use the music.

I was amazed at the Japanese culture and the people. And THE FOOD. All of it was fantastic.
The people were warm, friendly, polite, interesting, and really interested in the music.
I became the Hollywood Reporter for FM Tokyo Radio and did a report from Hollywood live to
Japanese radio for almost two years thanks to a radio guy named Yonos Gonda who was a great
guy to work with.

RECORDING

The album was recorded in Colorado because I was commuting between Denver and Los Angeles
and the studio Colorado Sound was where my first worldwide radio album "Soulscape" was mixed.
Further recording on the album was done at Steve Reid's studio in North Hollywood to complete
the project.

STYLES

As more tools were invented in the late 80's and early 90's, I was experimenting with samplers,
synths and drum machines while also having world class musicians at my disposal. One of the funniest
things that happened while making the album was me going into the studio while Dave Carpenter
the bass player was sleeping and putting down the bass track myself on "Jaco Does The Weather."
I fired up a Roland sampler with a Jaco Pastorius bass sample and played a bass part and a wild
bass solo in the middle of the tune. Dave was not happy about this but he became credited for that
bass solo because no one at that time believed that something so realistic could be done on a synthesizer.

The blending of sequencing or pre-recorded midi along with human musicians was in its infancy at this time.
I was one of the first jazz composers to use this tech along with George Duke, Jeff Lorber, Preston Glass
and others. The midi tracks were done on an Apple SE 30 black and white computer and then fed through
SMPTE time code to the 2 inch 24 track tape machine along with a click track and the live players played to
that. Drummer Joel Taylor was an early adopter who mastered the idea quickly and the band was so popular
the the National Public Broadcasting station KPBS invited us to do a live show at their San Diego studio in
1991. The recording of this show is available on Youtube and features the album songs as well as Crusader
sax man Wilton Felder who played in the live band instead of Ernie Watts for the TV filming.

  
Available through Apple Music amazon.com  SPOTIFY 

If you are interesting in the full catalog of my music, the first 40 albums information can be found here. My official discography page supercedes All Music
Guide, Discogs, and all other incomplete and incorrect references to my recorded works and can be found here.
   
IMPORTANT NOTE:

Now in 2023, there are many bootlegs and fakes of this project. None of them net me a single penny. Please support my career
and musical legacy by streaming the music in the re-mastered version available online. The new version "Early Works: The 90's" sounds
better and has additional bonus tracks as well. SO GET EARLY WORKS the 90's to STREAM TOKYO NIGHTS.