# Mint Jams

Mint Jams is a live album by Japanese jazz fusion band Casiopea, released on May 21, 1982 by Alfa Records. The album's title is an arrangement of the band members' first and last initials. This album is widely considered to be Casiopea's best, as it combines their live dynamism and precision with careful studio work.

## Background and recording

As Alfa Records expanded into Europe, it was planned to produce an album for Europe by one of its artists, Casiopea. Initially, it was planned to be a compilation of songs from previous albums, but was later turned into a live album. Mint Jams was also Casiopea's first album to mainly feature the Yamaha GS-1 FM synthesizer, played by Minoru Mukaiya; this synthesizer was subsequently used in many of their live performances.
Live sound recordings from a two-day performance at Tokyo Kaikan were used and subsequently remixed at Alfa Studio 'A' by Shunsuke Miyazami, Satoshi Nakao, Norio Yoshizawa, and Atsushi Saito. The songs were arranged in advance with studio work in mind. To achieve the likeness of a studio quality sound, the audience noise from the Chuo Kaikan live performances were cut from the mix, except for during the bass guitar and drum solos in "Domino Line", and the latter-half part of "Swear" which include the drum and piano solo. There were many changes in the arrangements in post-production: "Tears of the Star" had a removed 30-second intro, "Domino Line" has bass and drum solos from both concert dates, the outro for "Swear" was cut by 40 seconds, "Midnight Rendezvous" had clap sound effects added, and "Time Limit" had more than a minute removed.
Besides the title of the album being an arrangement of the band members' first and last initials, it uses the word "mint" to imply a "mint condition" and "high performance". The word "jams" describe their live performance of which the source material was taken from.
The European version of Mint Jams was released the same year as the Japanese release. The following year, in 1983, when Casiopea visited London to record the album Jive Jive, a promotional live concert was held.

## Track listing

All music is composed by Issei Noro

## Personnel

Casiopea:
* Issei Noro – electric guitar (Yamaha SG-2000), arrangement
* Minoru Mukaiya – keyboards (Yamaha GS-1, CS-70M, CP-35, Moog Source, Roland Vocoder Plus)
* Tetsuo Sakurai – bass (Yamaha BB-2000)
* Akira Jimbo – drums (Yamaha YD-9000R), percussion
Production:
* Shunsuke Miyazumi – producer
* Satoshi Nakao – associate producer
* Norio Yoshizawa – engineer
* Atsushi Saito – assistant engineer
* Toshinao Tsukui – art director
* Masao Hiruma – illustration and design
* Kouji Suzuki – remastering engineer (2016 reissue)

## Release history

| Region | Date | Label | Format | Catalog | Note |
| Japan | March 21, 1982 | Alfa Records | 30cmLP | ALF-85869 | stereo |
| United Kingdom | 1982 | Alfa Records | 30cmLP | ALF-85869 | |
| Netherlands | 1982 | Alfa Records | 30cmLP | ALF-85869 | |
| Sweden | 1982 | Sonet Records | 30cmLP | SNTF-924 | |
| Japan | December 21, 1983 | Alfa Records | 12cmCD | 38XA-5 | |
| Japan | 1984 | Alfa Records | 30cmLP | ALR-20002 | |
| Sweden | 1984 | Sonet Records | 12cmCD | SNCD 924 | |
| Japan | January 25, 1987 | Alfa Records | 12cmCD | 32XA-112 | |
| Japan | March 21, 1992 | Alfa Records | 12cmCD | ALCA-277 | |
| Japan | July 27, 1994 | Alfa Records | 12cmCD | ALCA-9007 | |
| Japan | July 23, 1998 | Alfa Records | 12cmCD | ALCA-9202 | |
| Japan | January 23, 2002 | Village Records | remastered 12cmCD | VRCL-2207 | DSD, LP paper jacket |
| Japan | February 14, 2002 | Village Records | remastered 12cmCD | VRCL-2227 | DSD |
| Japan | May 27, 2009 | Sony Music Direct | remastered 12cmCD | MHCL-20009 | DSD, Blu-spec CD, LP paper jacket |
| Japan | December 10, 2014 | Sony Music Direct | HYBRID SA-CD | DYCL-446 | DSD, ORDER MADE FACTORY |
| Japan | February 3, 2016 | Sony Music Direct | Music download | 1076210122 | iTunes Store |
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| Japan | July 27, 2016 | Sony Music Direct | Music download | 11178 | HD-music FLAC 96 kHz/24bit |
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