Biography of Tsuyoshi Niwa
Tsuyoshi's first horn was the trumpet, which he picked up at the age of 10. He switched to the trombone at 12, and finally settled with the saxophone at 15. He instantly got obsessed with the alto sax for its tone, for its mechanism and for its capacity to express his ideas. Back in high school, he performed jazz from many decades, like Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Weather Report, Chick Corea, etc. At 19, he became a soprano saxophonist. After graduating a college in Japan with a chemistry degree, Tsuyoshi moved to New York in 1995 to study jazz. With masters like Dave Liebman, Reggie Workman, Arnie Lawrence, Phil Markowitz, Makanda Ken McIntyre and George Garzone, Tsuyoshi acquired not only 'chops', but extensive understanding of music as a language and many compositional techniques. His intellectual urge led him to form a quartet, with which he performed in various NY venues for six years. He recorded his first album "Sequence X" in 1997. The CD consists of all originl compositions except Bye Bye Blackbird arranged to 5/4. His second CD, "Internal Dance" featured even more original tunes with arranged versions of Speak Low and Soul Eyes. In 2003, when his musician friend, Amalia Gre from Italy signed a contract, he flew to Rome and recorded her first CD. A half year later, he moved to Italy and toured with her band for four months playing over 30 cities. In Rome, he got his own contract. His third CD, "Internal Dance (Alfamusic Edition)" was released in Italy. Tsuyoshi came back to Tokyo in 2004. He has been performing for many venues in Tokyo as well as Japanese radio shows.
