(May 5, 1949 – September 9, 1978) was a Japanese

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

alto saxophonist. Self-taught at a young age, Abe performed with notables such as

Motoharu Yoshizawa Motoharu Yoshizawa (吉沢元治) (1931 – September 12, 1998) was an influential Japanese bassist known for playing in a distinctive free jazz and free improvisation style, sometimes deploying electronics and using the unusual self-designed five ...

Takehisa Kosugi was a Japanese composer, violinist and artist associated with the Fluxus movement. Biography Kosugi studied musicology at the Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated in 1962. He first became drawn to music listening to his father play har ...

, Yosuke Yamashita, Derek Bailey, and

Milford Graves Milford Graves (August 20, 1941 – February 12, 2021) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, Professor Emeritus of Music, researcher/inventor, visual artist/sculptor, gardener/herbalist, and martial artist. Graves was noteworthy for his e ...

, although he generally performed solo. He was married to the author

Izumi Suzuki was a Japanese writer and actor, known for her science fiction stories and essays on Japanese pop culture. Married to avant-garde saxophonist Kaoru Abe until his death from overdose, she is also known for her association with photographer Nobuy ...

, and was a cousin to singer

Kyu Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and actor. He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as " Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached numbe ...

. He was portrayed in

Kōji Wakamatsu was a Japanese film director who directed such ''pinku eiga'' films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film ...

's film ''Endless Waltz'' by novelist and punk rock singer

Kō Machida is a Japanese author, punk rock singer, poet, and actor. History Machida formed a punk rock band called Inu (meaning "dog" in Japanese) in 1978, for which he used the stage name Machida Machizō (). Inu released their first album, ''Meshi Ku ...

Personal life

Abe dropped out of highschool in 1967, at 17 years of age, to focus on perfecting his playing, and in 1968, he did his first performance, at a jazz spot named Oreo. In 1970, he met

Masayuki Takayanagi was a Japanese jazz / free improvisation / noise musician. He was active in the Japanese jazz scene from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he formed New Directions (later New Direction Unit), which recorded several albums throughout the 1970s. He also ...

. in 1971, he met

, and in 1973, they married. In 1976, they had a daughter. However, in 1977, they divorced.

Career

Abe was prolific, appearing almost every day to jazz spots and concerts. His library consists almost entirely of archival and live recordings, however he has recorded in a studio. In his later years, Abe would begin playing different instruments. In 1976-1978 to be specific, were his years of most exploration. However, there have been instances of him playing

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

in 1970-1971. He also played

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

all the way throughout his career.

Death

Abe died from

Bromisoval Bromisoval ( INN), commonly known as bromovalerylurea, is a hypnotic and sedative of the bromoureide group discovered by Knoll in 1907 and patented in 1909. It is marketed over the counter in Asia under various trade names (such as ''Brovarin' ...

overdose in 1978, causing an acute gastric perforation.

References

* Yuko Morita (ed.). ''Abe Kaoru march 1980''. Tokyo: Bunyusha, 1994 (Japanese) * Soejima Teruto. ''Nihon furii jazu shi'' (日本フリージャズ史, The History of Japanese Free Jazz). Tokyo: Seidosha, 2002 (Japanese)

External links

Kaoru Abe website, including an English discography
* Abe profile on allmusic.combr>Izumi entry
in

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, K 1949 births Japanese jazz saxophonists Avant-garde saxophonists Free jazz saxophonists 1978 deaths People from Kawasaki, Kanagawa DIW Records artists P.S.F. Records artists 20th-century Japanese musicians 20th-century saxophonists Drug-related deaths in Japan NoBusiness Records artists