Harumi – Harumi

A few more bits:
Harumi played at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on May 3, 1968

Listed as being 21 years old in May 17, 1968 Van Nuys News: "He attended Forest Hills High School and started singing on street corners in Forest Hills for the sheer exhiliaration of entertaining others. Six years ago, he started composing and already has 32 songs to his credit."

April 27, 1968 Progress Bulletin (Pomona CA): "Harumi has lived in the United States for 12 years. He studied art and photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and started a career as a photographer."

"According to Gotham publicist Michael Goldstein, Japenese entertainer Harumi, appearing tonight at the Pasadena Civic, had his sukiyaki and other Japanese food flown here from his favorite New York restaurant." - Van Nuys News (May 3, 1968)

If you listen to the Tom Wilson interview of Bobby Callender Music Factory DJ series he talks about how he is working on the Harumi album and he gives some details. What caught my attention was the fact that the album started out completely Indian as in probably sitar Tambora tabla laden where by the time that this interview is going on he admits that it had gone more toward the far eastern direction. I would love to hear the outtakes! Don Robertson was on fire with his talent to grace not only this LP but many others as well. For anyone curious about the Bobby Callender interview with Tom Wilson you can go to YouTube and watch a novice transcendent video that I did for it. I do not make anything from you learning anything. There’s also some unknown Velvet Underground information at the end of the video… It’s the Andy Warhol commercial and it should blow some minds for anyone that’s a historian Of the Velvet Underground. BTW – I have a separate video for that too. Grab yourself some popcorn and a prize over in the restroom there for reading through all this. Enjoy life, the music, and expression.

Don Robertson played Sitar and also mentions the other musician that was hired to help play on the album. For more info go to Don Robertson Interview 2020 Part 4- found on YouTube.

Pretty clearly a bootleg sourced from an LP copy. The sound is very, very muddy (especially on the low end). The last two tracks (sides C and D of the original LP release) are swapped for some reason, and about a minute is edited off the ending of Samurai Memories, with the track fading out to hide this- it's actually 18:11 in length, rather than the 19:15 listed here. Probably done to fit it on a CD; the album comes to 78:59 with the missing minute.

Frank Zappa is credited with "liner notes," but in reality it's just an excerpt of an old interview with Zappa, where he mentions in passing that Tom Wilson worked with some guy named Harumi on an album. He doesn't say anything substantial about the album or Harumi, which makes sense, as this isn't really the sort of thing he'd be into.

I posted these somewhere else, but thought they belong here, so I copied and pasted them,

It looks like he spent 32 years living at 7 Dutch Street, New York, NY 10038, which is near the Brooklyn Bridge. There is a Social Security death notice for a Harumi Ando born in 1944 and died in 2007. He would have been 24 in 1968 when the record was made, and 63 when he passed away.
A posting in a legal forum about the building at 7 Dutch Street...
"Harumi Ando, a 62 y.o. photographer and video artist has lived in his loft on the top of the 5 floor walkup for 32 years."
This would mean that he could be born in 1944 and could have died in 2007. In other words, the address and dates make sense.

I'm also intrigued by this release. Big Zappa and Tom Wilson fan. I've listened several times to the interview with Tom Wilson for his radio show, Music Factory - Episode 21. Harumi has a New York accent and says he is from "Forest Hills" which is a section of Queens, NY. It has been written that his father was an Ambassador, which is possible, becuase United Nations is nearby, his parents speak Japanese on the album. I don't know if he passed away, but there is/was a Harumi Ando in Greenwich Village and the age would be correct.

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/realestate/a-new-chapter-in-the-faceoff-between-tenants-and-landlords.html
This April, 2006 NY Times article gives a little more info about Harumi and the legal battle with the landlord. It says ...Harumi Ando, graphic artist and photographer, came to NY as a young boy, (no mention of his attempt at pop music stardom), but goes on to say that he moved into the buidling at 7 Dutch St. in 1975, and this legal battle was in 2006. It also says he was 62 years old.

Why did they decide to release this album in Germany as a single one, and not as a double, as originally released in USA? Same happened to Mothers of Invention debut Freak Out (Verve too)...?
Most probably some mundane budget/distribution reasons.

Anybody need a copy of disc 2? Or have an extra disc 1?

I am interested in the insert that came with this CD when it was brand new. Not the booklet, but a separate single page insert, which has a picture of Frank Zappa and some quotes from him about this Hiromi album.

If anyone has access to this insert, can you please upload it here and send me a note to let me know. Or you can PM me to send it directly if you don't wish to post it for some reason.

I really NEED to see the insert again... please, someone help me!

Nothing is known about harumi, despite a long search for the artist. They sound like a psychedelic-japanese Beatles band. There's also an existential 24-minute poetry piece.