Collection: Three Blind Mice

Takeshi Fujii started Three Blind Mice in Tokyo in 1970 because Japan had no independent, owner-run label recording its own jazz players. With the engineer Yoshihiko Kannari he set out to capture bands exactly as they sounded in the room: no isolation booths, no equaliser tricks, everyone playing at once. The records that came out of that approach made stars of Isao Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Yamamoto, gave Mari Nakamoto and Hidefumi Toki their first albums as leaders, and ranged from piano trios and big bands to free improvisation. Suzuki's Blow Up and Yamamoto's Misty were its two biggest sellers and are still the label's best-known recordings.