Tokyo Update

Jazz singer Pinky Winters performed an absolutely flawless seventy-minute set last night at the TUC Club in Tokyo backed by her "boys" Kiyoshi Morita and Masahiko Taniguchi, before an adoring and packed house, several of whom had even carted along their precious (upwards of a thousand dollars each) copies of Pinky's eponymously titled 1954 10 inch Vantage LP for her signature. Believe it or not, an autograph on a artists' handiwork in Japan actually devalues the worth of said relic. But no one really seemed to care. She also sold dozens of her new CD "Speak Low." Quite an evening!

The entire eleven days here in Tokyo have been amazing, but if I had to chose one event, it would have to be last night. The recorded results of her all-Sinatra program will be released most likely mid-year on SSJ Records.

Her new "Speak Low" CD is everywhere in Tokyo. You can't miss it wherever you go, including HMV Stores, Disk Union, and the still-vital Japanese Tower Records. But the nicest surprise came when Pinky undertook some shopping yesterday afternoon after our visit to the Tokyo Tower, and she went in the largest non-chain record store in the city only to hear her "Speak Low" CD being played on the store's sound system. If you know Pinky at all, it should come as no surprise that she promptly anoounced to a nearby clerk "That's Me!" (on the p.a. system).

I wouldn't go so far as to say that PINKYMANIA has swept Tokyo, but pretty darn close.

One more appearance by Pinky this afternoon at a private party, and then---sigh!!!!---we head home to California tomorrow afternoon.