Album Notes

Personnel:
Tsuyoshi Niwa (soprano sax)
Phil Markowitz (piano)
Tony Marino (bass)
Matt Wilson (drums)



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Biography of Tsuyoshi Niwa (soprano saxophonist)

Tsuyoshi Niwa, born and grew up in Tokyo, picked up the trumpet as his first musical instrument when he was 10. After playing in a brass band for a few years, with occasional switching to the trombone, he finally met his fated horn, the saxophone. The obsession with instrument made him a practice maniac. In his teenage, he mostly covered jazz pieces by Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Weather Report, Chick Corea and so on. Eventually, at college, he started composing his own compositions. That is also when he began playing the soprano saxophone.
When Tsuyoshi graduated college with a chemistry degree, he felt the academic path he took was not quite what he hoped he would like to pursue. So, he moved to New York in 1995 to study jazz. With masters like Dave Liebman, Reggie Workman, Arnie Lawrence, Makanda Ken McIntyre and George Garzone, not only he improved his performance skills, but he acquired an extensive understanding of music and invented numbers of new compositional techniques.
Encouraged by a Grammy-nominated composer, Phil Markowitz, Tsuyoshi recorded his original tunes and released his first album "Sequence X" in 1997. The album features Phil Markowitz on the piano, Dave Liebman Group's bass player, Tony Marino, and Matt Wilson on the drums. Tsuyoshi's unique compositions and an arrangement of Bye Bye Blackbird in 5/4 won numerous reviews on jazz magazines on paper and on the Internet.
Tsuyoshi spent total of nine years in New York. His activities include his second CD, "Internal Dance", as well as performances at various venues such as Knitting Factory. Musicians he performed with include Robert Glasper, Otis Brown III, Toru Dodo and many others.
In 2003, EMI Italy artist, Amalia Gre had Tsuyoshi flown to Rome and recorded her first album together. A half year later, Tsuyoshi moved to Italy and performed with the singer for four more months touring all over Italy. In the meantime, Tsuyoshi got his own contract, and his third CD, "Internal Dance (Alfamusic Edition)" was recorded and released.
Tsuyoshi currently resides in Tokyo and he has been performing his soprano and alto saxes (and flute) on radios and at venues.