Yoshisaburo "Sabu" Toyozumi (born Tsurumi, Yokohama; 1943Rusch, Bob "The Questionnaire", ''Cadence'' Volume 15, Number 2, 1989) is one of the small group of musical pioneers who comprised the first generation playing

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...

music in Japan. As an improvising drummer he played and recorded with many of the key figures in Japanese free music including the two principal figures in the first generation,

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 ...

and

Kaoru Abe (May 5, 1949 – September 9, 1978) was a Japanese avant-garde alto saxophonist. Self-taught at a young age, Abe performed with notables such as Motoharu Yoshizawa, Takehisa Kosugi, Yosuke Yamashita, Derek Bailey, and Milford Graves, although ...

from the late 1960s onwards. He is one of a very few of this circle who are still alive and engaged in playing this music today. Toyozumi features on numerous commercially available recordings with many of the most notable Japanese and international improvising musicians including Derek Bailey,

Mototeru Takagi (28 December 1941 – December 2002) was a Japanese tenor saxophone player, known for playing in a distinctive and powerful free jazz style. He played with many of the most important Japanese free groups and musicians during the seventies, su ...

Misha Mengelberg Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', p. 459. Oxford University Press. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz ...

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

Keiji Haino Keiji Haino ( ''Haino Keiji''; born May 3, 1952) is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise music, percussion, psychedelic music, minimalism and drone music. He has been active since the ...

Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He mainly plays guitar, turntables, and electronics. He first came to international prominence in the 1990s as the leader of the experimental rock group Ground Zero, and has since worked in ...

Tom Cora Thomas Henry Corra (September 14, 1953 – April 9, 1998), better known as Tom Cora, was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, B ...

and

Fred Van Hove Fred Van Hove (19 February 1937 – 13 January 2022) was a Belgian jazz musician and a pioneer of European free jazz. He was a pianist, accordionist, church organist, and carillonist, an improviser and a composer. In the 1960s and 1970s he perf ...

. In 1971 he became the only non-American member of the

Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM is devote ...

(AACM)). He dedicated his first record as a leader, ''Sabu – Message to Chicago'', to compositions by AACM members, and in 1992 toured and recorded with AACM trumpeter

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Free ...

. Toyozumi has been instrumental in bringing many European and American improvisers to Japan including Derek Bailey,

and

Sunny Murray James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was an American musician, and was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. Biography Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an ...

.Bell, Clive "The Sabu Toyozumi Project" (October 2005), ''The Wire'' issue 260, p. 82 In 2005 British improvising guitarist and promoter John Russell arranged a two-day event dedicated to Toyozumi in which the drummer performed in different groupings with 14 musicians from the London improvised music scene including, most notably,

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

Lol Coxhill George Lowen Coxhill (19 September 1932 – 10 July 2012) known professionally as Lol Coxhill, was an English free improvising saxophonist. He played soprano and sopranino saxophone. Biography Coxhill was born to George Compton Coxhill ...

Phil Minton Phil Minton (born 2 November 1940) is a British avant-garde jazz/ free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter. Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's ...

John Edwards Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...

and

Steve Beresford Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such ...

. ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'' described his playing at this time as follows: "He’s busy, but there’s always space between his notes, and he avoids the flashy technical solution to musical problems. His playing is crisp and dramatic, with a very occasional use of repetition to spark a climax. If it’s possible for a drum kit to ask awkward questions, Toyozumi seems to be doing it". In an interview with ''

Cadence Magazine ''Cadence: The Independent Journal of Creative Improvised Music'' is a quarterly review of jazz, blues and improvised music. The magazine covers a range of styles, from early jazz and blues to the avant-garde. Critic and historian Bob Rusch fou ...

'' in 1988 Toyozumi makes clear the importance of his relationship with nature as an influence on his playing and Clive Bell writing in ''The Wire'' in 2005 notes "his devotion to the way of

Watazumido Roshi (November 20, 1911 - December 14, 1992) was a master of the end-blown Japanese bamboo flute. He studied Rinzai Zen, attaining the title of rōshi. Born as Tanaka Masaru, he was also known as Tanaka Fumon, Itcho Fumon, Watazumi Fumon, and ...

, the late

shakuhachi A is a Japanese and ancient Chinese longitudinal, end-blown flute that is made of bamboo. The bamboo end-blown flute now known as the was developed in Japan in the 16th century and is called the .

player and

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

master, whose performances mixed

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

and music in a bizarre cocktail of discipline and craziness". In 2009 he returned to London to feature as one of the players in Russell's improvisation festival Fete Quaqua which was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3. He continues to tour widely and in the past year or so has performed in Belgium and France, Chile, Taiwan, England, Philippines and Greece. He also performs from time to time with the legendary Japanese noise group

Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist , its one constant member, who is head and owner of the Os ...

. Currently he can be found performing on the

erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...

– a two-stringed Chinese violin – as often as playing the drums.

Selected discography

Sabu Toyozumi has performed on over 80 published recordings. A full discography is maintained at Sabu Toyozumi Discography. Besides those listed below, Toyozumi also appears on recordings by

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chica ...

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...

and

Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (or Yamash'ta), born , is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is best known for pioneering and popularising a fusion of traditional Japanese percussive music with Western progressive rock music in the 1960s and 1 ...

. As band leader *''Sabu – Message to Chicago'' (1974), Trio Records/Nadja with Ryoh Hara and Syoji Ukaji *''Water Weed'' (1975), Trio Records – with Takashi Tokuhiro and

*''Sublimation'' (2004), Bishop Records – with Kawasaki Jun, Kando Hideaki and Iizuka Satoshi *''Son's Scapegoat'' (2006), Siwa- with Kondo Hideaki, Kawasaki Jun and Takuo Tanigawa With

's New Directions *''Independence: Tread on Sure Ground'' (1970), Union Records *''Call in Question'' (1970),

P.S.F. Records P.S.F. Records is a Japanese record label specialising in underground Psychedelic music, psychedelic and folk music, and free improvisation. The label was established in Tokyo by Hideo Ikeezumi (1949-2017) (生悦住英夫) with the philosophy "I on ...

*''Live Independence'' (1970),

Improvising collaborations *''Saxophone Adventure'' (1970), Philips – with

*''Overhang Party'' (1978), ALM – with

*''Sabu Brotzman Duo'' (1982), Improvised Company – with

*''What Are You Talking About?'' (1983), DIW – with

Tristan Honsinger Tristan Honsinger (born October 23, 1949) is an American cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. He is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and guitarist Derek Bailey. Born ...

Toshinori Kondo was a Japanese avant-garde jazz and jazz fusion trumpeter. Career Kondo was born in Ehime Prefecture. He attended Kyoto university in 1967, and became close friends with percussionist Tsuchitori Toshiyuki. In 1972 the pair left university, an ...

and

Peter Kowald Peter Kowald (21 April 1944 – 21 September 2002) was a German free jazz and free improvising double bassist and tubist. Career A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with many European ...

*''Sabu Bailey Brotzman Trio'' (1987), Improvised Company – with Derek Bailey and

*''Ars Longa Dens Brevis'' (1987), Allelopathy – with

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

and Onnyk *''Cosmos Has Spirit'' (1992), Scissors – with

*''Two Strings Will Do It'' (1994), PSF – with

Barre Phillips Barre Phillips (born October 27, 1934, in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in south ...

and Keiji Haino *''Fragrance'' (1998), Nds – with Paul Rutherford *''The Crushed Pellet'' (2003), Studio Wee – with Eiichi Hayashi and

*''Live in Japan'' (2003), Qbico – with

Arthur Doyle Arthur Doyle (June 26, 1944 – January 25, 2014) was an American jazz saxophonist, bass clarinettist, flutist, and vocalist who was best known for playing what he called "free jazz soul music". Writer Phil Freeman described him as having "one o ...

and Takashi Mizutani *''If Ocean is Broken'' (2009), Qbico – with

*''Crimson Lip'' (2009), Improvising Beings – with

Alan Silva Alan Silva (born Alan Lee da Silva; January 22, 1939 in Bermuda) is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player. Biography Silva was born a British subject to an Azorean/Portuguese mother, Irene da Silva, and a black Bermudian fat ...

Keiko Higuchi is a Japanese activist, journalist and writer. She teaches as professor in faculty of letters of Tokyo Kasei University. As an activist she has been known as feminist, but since the 1980s active on warfare around aged people and their families. S ...

and Takuo Tanikawa *''New Sea'' (2012), Kaitai Records – with Takashi Kako and

*''Kosai Yujyo'' (2012), Improvising Beings – with various musicians *''The Untrammeled Traveller'' (2013), Chap Chap Records – with

With Hijokaidan *''Split'' (2010), Harbinger Sound, split LP with Airway *''Made in Japan'' (2012), Doubtmusic *''The Conscience'' (2017) NoBusiness – with Paul Rutherford

References

External links

Sabu Toyozumi biography

Sabu Toyozumi discography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Toyozumi, Sabu Japanese drummers Living people 1943 births NoBusiness Records artists

Selected discography

References

Further reading

External links