Telegram.com: After 30 years, teenagers' record draws attention in Japan
For a bunch of local kids, David, Peter and Leon Gruenbaum put together a pretty good musical career. The jazz trio of brothers, dubbed Dapele by their father using the first two letters of each of their names, played area schools, libraries and nursing homes in the mid-1970s...When the oldest, David, was 17 and preparing to head to the University of Chicago, the brothers recorded an album of their original compositions just as a sort of family keepsake. They pressed 1,000 copies, sold some for $5.95 a piece, and the rest got stuck in storage. The boys all eventually went their separate ways, and the album faded into obscurity. Until a few months ago. That's when the record, "Bop 'n Pop ... and all that Jazz," mysteriously resurfaced in a Japanese vintage vinyl store, drawing rave reviews and such renewed demand the brothers are considering putting out a compact disc version...Their father, Michael Gruenbaum, was the first to realize something was up when Japanese music fans started contacting him and asking questions about the album. It seems a copy of the record, brought to Japan by a buyer for Hi Fi Records in Tokyo, had sold for more than $200. A review of the album then appeared on the store's Web site, sparking a frenzy of interest from jazz aficionados and DJs, some of whom were using Dapele's music in their dance mixes.
The writers spoke in glowing praise of the album and wanted to know how to get their hands on copies of the 30-year-old recording. The store wanted to buy at least 25 additional copies. The album is clean and mellow, the kind of music you might you find these days setting the mood in a gourmet coffee house. "I think Japanese are drawn to the album by a sense of nostalgia for the carefree but mellow '70s sound," said Ryohei Matsunaga, the Hi Fi Records buyer who rediscovered the record. "It's difficult to find that sound in the kind of music that's mainstream here now." "We have no idea how the album even made it to Japan in the first place," said Peter, who now lives in Seattle where he is the president and chief software architect at Red Llama Inc., a medical and educational training software company. Matsunaga can explain. He came across a copy on a buying trip to the Boston area six years ago. "I was immediately struck by how good these kids were," he said. "The disc jacket caught my eye because it looked fun, goofy almost. But from the first track, I knew this was something special...Matsunaga also wrote a glowing review on the store's Web site, which has since sold several dozen copies of the album at the discount price of $67...more...
Some audio clips on this site.
