Vinyl is final.....from Japan to Hawaii and then back

After our band Greenwood broke up in the early 1980s our bandleader Robin put on another hat, the hat of record producer. He came up with the idea of doing a couple of songs that had originated in Japan. Cheerleader Strut was an instrumental that would feature the Greenwood horn section and some honky tonk sounds from our keyboardist Dwayne Higa, while Sparkle, a song that Robin had Japanese lyrics translated to English would feature our lead singer Curtis Takahama, the horn section and some cool funky strumming by our guitarist Owen Kajiwara. It was in 1988 that this project took place and by that time Greenwood members were already all over the place doing this and doing that. The horn section which was signature Greenwood was here and there, Miles Ichida our section leader/trumpet player in Los Angeles, and some others who were pretty much kind of not in any shape to take on any kind of project. To the rescue though saxophonist Randy Hoo and Wayne Nakamura and trumpet/trombone player Mark Silva agreed to do all the horn parts. Here's a more recent picture of Mark above surrounded by his posse. I remember singing a few lines on Sparkle. Anyway, the recording was pretty, pretty cool, sold a more than a few copies, but this is where it gets pretty, pretty interesting. Out of cyberspace our leader gets this email. What follows is the correspondence Robin and Eiichiro Arakawa from of all places Tokyo, Japan. Twenty years have passed since the project was done but due to technology and the internet it's just as though the Greenwood 45 rpm 7 inch single just happened. It's amazing that after 20 years the Greenwood record has stood the test of time and is still in good saleable shape. I guess it's true when they say "Vinyl is final". Now this story is pretty cool if you ask me! Hello there. My name is Eiichiro Arakawa, and I run a Records shop in Tokyo, Japan. I had a chance to listen to your 7 inch single ''Cheerleader Strut & Sparkle,'' and was impressed. How wonderful!! As I'd love to share this great music to my customers here, I'd like to know whether you have any stock of this 7inch single with you. If you do, kindly let me know the number of copies available. Looking forward to receiving a positive reply. Best regards,　　Eiichiro my address; Postal Code 101-0051 SHIMADA Bldg 4F, 1-12 JIMBO-CHO, KANDA, CHIYODA-KU, TOKYO, JAPAN ----- Original Message ----- From: Robin Kimura To: east-rd@netlaputa.ne.jp Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 3:26 AM Subject: RE: Hello , about order from Japan Aloha Eiichiro! Wow! I was presently surprised when we received your email! Especially since we recorded and released this 45 rpm single in 1988. How were you able to get a copy? Currently we have approximately 80 copies left in storage. I checked the stock and it’s in excellent condition. Please let me know how you want us to proceed from here and we can continue to communicate positively. Do you have a website of your store? If so, please indicate the link to the site. Thanks again for your inquiry! Mahalo! Robin Kimura Greenwood 94-207 Awalua Place Waipahu, HI 96797 -----Original Message----- From: east-rd@netlaputa.ne.jp [mailto:east-rd@netlaputa.ne.jp] Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 2:44 AM To: greenwood@hawaii.rr.com Subject: Hello , about order from Japan Dear Robin, Thank you for your prompt reply. Well, my friend picked this 7 inch at a secondhand shop down here, and he is nice enough to bring it to my store to introduce this great sound to me. Let me tell you that I can't help making efforts to share this wonderful music to as much music lovers like myself as possible by offering them at my store. I guess 80 copies is just about right, so could you kindly let me know how much would it be like, and I hope we could proceed to the next step (payment method, shipping method, etc.). Looking forward to hearing from you very soon. Best regards, Eiichiro p.s. You could reach my website at http://www.east-record.com/ I must admit that I do not update it too often, as I weigh on face-to-face business, by learning my customers' tastes.

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