Fantasy Of Japan - Ricardo Santos

Musume Dojoji

Fantasy Of Japan
Ricardo Santos and his Orchestra
Polydor LPPM-100
1964

An article published in Billboard - February 25, 1964 suggests that Santo visited Japan five years before he "etched" this LP in Germany.

The album featured here includes an English language insert that features covers illustrations from the Santos "Holiday Series".

From the insert: This is the third of the collection of Japanese melodies arranged by Ricardo Santos, who formerly handled Japanese Folk songs and children's songs in Holiday in Japan and Holiday in Nippon. Here he takes up Japanese classic music and completes a series of his recordings of Japanese music.

Handling such difficult materials for a foreigner as purely Japanese music, Santos has done a very fine job even more than his previous arrangements of Japanese folksongs and children's songs.

In these arrangements of Japanese music, his idea is so original, fantastic and fresh that we can say he composed fantasies of Japanese classic music rather than he made arrangements for a modern orchestra.

Also found on the insert is a credit for Werner Muller. Muller's name is found in parentheses directly above Ricardo Santos and his Orchestra. When I googled Muller, I found and compared the image return of Muller to the man in the insert photograph. The man featured in the insert is Muller.

The package, including the cover art, seems dated for a mid-60s release. The set is uneven and features some very "conservative" sounding tracks that are barely "pop" as well as at least three great space age flavored tunes including the standout sample above.

Echigojishi
Shinnal-Nagashi
Genroku Hanamiodorl
Azuma Hakkel
Chidori No Kyoku
Rokudan
Sanjusangendo
Etenraku
Aki No Irokusa
Musume Dojoji
Kappore
Kanjincho