Small Music Bars in Tokyo

Here's my on-going list of small music bars in Tokyo. They all have amazing vinyl collections and are small enough that the bartender is also the DJ. If you only check out one of them, go to Little Soul Cafe. It's directly across the street from Jet Set Records.

 Little Soul Cafe in Shimokitazawa

JBS (Jazz, Blues, Soul) in Shibuya

Bar Soul Stream in Shinjuku Sanchome

ZAPP in Ikebukuro

BtoB in Golden Gai

Here's a list of jazz bars that someone else put together.

Bar Soul Stream in Shinjuku Sanchome

Favorite Live Recordings

In general, I despise live recordings. I just don't like how they sound. Here are some albums that I'll admit are exceptions:

Bill Evans, "Waltz for Debby"
Donny Hathaway, "Live"
Jimi Hendrix, "Band of Gypsies"
Curtis Mayfield, "Curtis/Live!"
Townes Van Zandt, "Live at the Old Quarter"

And a couple of runners-up (only because I've only listened to them a few times each):

Sam Cooke, "Live at the Harlem Square Club"
Bill Withers, "Live at Carnegie Hall"

Tiki Bars

Consider this a work in progress.

El Tiki (Buenos Aires)

Frankie's Tiki Room (Vegas)

Tiki Athens (Athens)

Tiki Ti (First Visit) (LA)

Tiki Ti (Second Visit) (LA)

Frankie's Tiki Room

Frankie's is one of the best nouveau tiki bars that I've heard of, along with Tiki Athens, which I just went to a month or so ago.

Tiki Ti

An earlier view.

Little Soul Cafe

15,000 soul records on the walls. Highly recommended. Perhaps my new favorite bar in the world.