Record Label

Three Blind Mice

Japanese jazz label set up by producer Takeshi Fujii in 1970. The label focused on Japanese jazz artists and, like Blue Note, was renowned for the quality of its recordings (most of which were recorded by engineer Yoshihiko Kannari) and artwork. At least a portion of early release manufacturing and distribution duties were performed by Toshiba-EMI Ltd. On March 21, 1979, Three Blind Mice signed a 5-year manufacturing and distribution contract with Nippon Phonogram Co., Ltd. Beginning in April 1979, certain series from the catalog were partially released under both contracts (i.e. old Toshiba-EMI stock was released and distributed by Nippon Phonogram, indicated by a blue tbm(F) sticker on the obi catalog number and a gold 'Distributed by Nippon Phonogram' sticker affixed to the front cover.) Furthermore, certain reissues within a series were reissued again after the Nippon Phonogram deal, an example being the 2500 Cat Series with a new TBM(P) catalog number prefix. However, the relationship was dissolved after only 2 years, on March 20, 1981. At this point, Trio Records assumed responsibilities with a master disk transfer agreement, but their record division closed after barely 2 years. Takeshi Fujii became embroiled in a legal dispute with Trio Records to obtain his master disks. The dispute ended in 1987. New releases would go on hiatus from 1983 until 1989. On September 1, 1985, Three Blind Mice was dissolved, and on September 12 of the same year, Fujii established TBM Video Co., Inc., the current parent company.