Kenta Tsugami profile
alto sax , soprano sax
PROFILE of Kenta Tsugami

Born in August 20, 1965. Having learned under Yoshio Otomo (Sax) and George Otsuka (Ds) while in college, he debuted professionally in 1987 as a member of WE-THREE of George Otsuka and PaPa-R of Ryojiro Furusawa. Since then, he co-played with many such known figures as Ryojiro Furusawa (Ds), Chie Ayado (Vo), Imawano Kyoshiro (Vo), and Akira Sakata (Sax) , guest-played in many known bands as Shang Shang Typhoon, Gontiti and others.
Currently, he performs in wide variety of circles and groups such as Takeshi Shibuya Orchestra since '96, Yoichi Murata Orchestra since '94, Yosuke Yamashita's Duo Plus and Yoshihide Otomo New Jazz Quintet since '99 and Naruyoshi Kikuchi's Date-Course Pentagon Royal Garden '00, etc.

Starting his first European tour in Austria with Yoshihide Otomo NEW JAZZ QUINTET for the festival "music unlimited 1999", he then extended his tours to International Jazz Festival in Chin Tao of China in 2000, and a grand tour playing in Paris, Brussels, Vienna and other cities in Europe in 2001. Other tours to be mentioned are successful performances in Chicago in November 2002 and another round tours through Cieszyn in Poland, Marseilles in France, and Lisbon in Portugal for the jazz festivals.

In the summer of 2000, he organized his own band, Bozo, and here he began composing and arranging music for his own. The players are Kenta Tsugami himself (Sax), Hiroshi Minami (P), Hiroaki Mizutani (Bass) and Akira Sotoyama (Ds). They are all strong-minded yet elegant performers, and all were ready　from its very start for the aggressive activities beginning in the midst of Tokyo. Bozo's first major appearance was in Yokohama Jazz Promenade in 2002, and they continued their appearances through out to the middle and western parts of Japan. In August 21 of the same year they issued their first album, named as " 1st ", from Body Electric Records. In November of 2003 they covered major cities in Kyushu Island, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Aso and Fukuoka.