- country:Japan
- style(s):Jazz
- label:ALFAMUSIC
- artist contact:ALFAMUSIC - Label & Publishing
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Tsuyoshi Niwa (Soprano Saxophone)
Born in Tokyo in 1972, a son of a car engineer grew up mostly in Tokyo, Japan. The kid showed strong inte-rests in sounds and fell in love with the movie sound track of "E.T.", which led him to play the trumpet
when he was 10. When he was 12, he moved to Mexico City with his family. Interestingly, what caught his attention most in Mexico was MTV on a cable channel.
He was a trombone player for his brass band. Tsuyoshi returned to Japan. His high school friend played a John Coltra-ne's "My Favorite Things" and Tsuyoshi became totally obsessed with jazz.
He picked up his first alto saxophone. Without a good teacher, he had to figure out everything by himself. But, he says he was fortunate that because he built all the notes by himself, he knows what those notes really mean to him. He learned a lot by listening to the recordings of his idols, Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis.
In college, Tsuyoshi enthusiastically continued to play in public. He played rock, pops, funk, fusion, ska, and of course, jazz, for which he had his own quartet performing at local jazz festivals.
Also, he toured to the U.S. as a member of college big band. When 19, he bought a soprano saxophone,
because he just loved Branford Marsalis and Wayne Shorter. But, when he listened to Steve Lacy and Dave Liebman, he discovered the real power of the soprano sound.
In 1995, he came to New York and began to study at the New School University Jazz Program. The cofounder of the school, Arnie Lawrence (alto sax) admits his talent in music making, but interestingly, Lawrence encourages him to become a singer.
Tsuyoshi's primary guru was George Garzone (tenor sax), who had also taught Branford Marsalis. Tsuyoshi also studied with Makanda Ken McIntyre (Blues), Reggie Workman (Futuristic Concept), Dave Liebman (Saxophone Masterclass) and PhilMarkowitz, a Grammy nominated composer Markowitz found Tsuyoshi's unique and strong approaches in music writing, such as black key vs. white key counter point.
The first CD, Sequence X was released in 1997. Markowitz produced the album and also recorded with him. It features Tony Marino (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums). The Cadence magazine reviews, "Lyrical, sometimes otherworldly, Sequence X marks the debut of very promising talent".
Tsuyoshi Niwa Quartet started to perform in New York. For the group, Tsuyoshi chose his closest friends, who are yet most talented young musicians in town, like Otis Brown III (drums) from Joe Lovano Trio, and Leo Tardin (piano), a renowned pianist from Switzerland. The quartet released Tsuyoshi's second CD, "Internal Dance" in 2000. In 2002, Tsuyoshi did a colaboration with actors called "D" directed by Chinatsu Kudo.
In 2003, Tsuyoshi flew to Rome, Italy for a recording session of an EMI recording artist, Amalia Gre. In this occasion Tsuyoshi met the producers of Alfamusic (Alessandro Guardia and Fabrizio Salvatore) and together they started to plan the new version of CD, Internal Dance, adding tracks with Italian musicians.
In May 2004, a recording session was held at Alfamusic studio in Rome.
Three new tunes were performed by Tsuyoshi and his new friends and talented Italian jazz players, Riccardo Biseo (piano), Francesco Puglisi (bass), and Nicola Angelucci (drums).
September 2004: Alfamusic announce the publishing of the new Internal Dance Album.