SABU TOYOZUMI NZ Tour 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SABU TOYOZUMI NZ Tour 2017

Audio Foundation and sound explorers are proud to present one of the greatest living improvising drummers – Sabu Toyozumi from Japan. Sabu has performed with a who’s who of jazz and avant-garde greats from Charles Mingus to Keiji Haino to Les Rallizes Denudes. For his first ever NZ tour Sabu will perform throughout the country with Daniel Beban (Orchestra of Spheres), Tom Callwood (The Phoenix Foundation) and Jeff Henderson (Audio Foundation).

Presale tickets for Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin available from www.undertheradar.co.nz

Sabu Toyozumi NZ Quartet:

Sabu Toyozumi (drums), Jeff Henderson (sax), Tom Callwood (bass), Daniel Beban (guitar)

Tour Dates

Wed 15 March – AUCKLAND - Wine Cellar
Thurs 16 March – HASTINGS – Common Room
Fri 17 March – WELLINGTON – Pyramid Club
Sat 18 March – WELLINGTON – Pyramid Club
Wed 22 March – DUNEDIN – None Gallery
Thurs 23 March – CHRISTCHURCH – Dark Room
Fri 24 March – MARAHAU – Tim’s Place
Sat 25 March – BLENHEIM – Dharma Bum’s Club

Sabu Toyozumi is one of the world’s great improvising drummers. During a career spanning five decades he has worked with a huge array of musicians from around the globe, from jazz icon Charles Mingus to Japanese noise maverick Keiji Haino. Emerging in the late ‘60s with other notable pioneers of free music in Japan, Kaoru Abe and Masayuki Takayanagi, Sabu Toyozumi has developed a unique approach to the drum kit. A devotee to the way of Zen master Watazumido, Toyozumi’s playing is equal parts discipline and freedom.

"If it’s possible for a drum kit to ask awkward questions, Toyozumi seems to be doing it” - The Wire.The Samurais (1968) Sabu Toyozumi’s carreer started in the mid ‘60s, playing with legendary Japanese psych-pop group The Samurais. After seeing Jimi Hendrix at a festival in Sweden in 1968, Toyozumi quit the Samurais and focused his attention on improvised music. With trail blazing Japanese free noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, Toyozumi was one of the first generation of musicians exploring free improvisation and noise in Japan. He recorded several albums with Takayanagi’s group New Directions, and around the same time he began working with Kaoru Abe, the groundbreaking saxophonist and political activist who embodied the free spirit of the avant garde in Japan in the early 70s. The two formed the duo Overhang Party, performing regularly until Abe’s death in 1978

In 1971 Toyozumi became the only non-US member of the Chicago-based AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), working with luminaries of the Chicago free jazz scene including Anthony Braxton, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Art Ensemble of Chicago and Wadada Leo Smith. Toyozumi recorded with Anthony Braxton’s Creative Music Orchestra in Paris in 1971, and in the same year he recorded with one of the giants of modern jazz, Charles Mingus.

Toyozumi’s collaborations since the 1970s reads like a who’s-who of free jazz and improvised music: Derek Bailey, Sunny Murray, Peter Brotzmann, Otomo Yoshihide, Alan Silva, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Misha Mengelberg, Evan Parker, John Russell, Peter Kowald, Barre Philips, Arthur Doyle, Fred Van Hove and many others.

Toyozumi has worked with Japanese underground psych legends Hijokaidan and Les Rallizes Dénudés, and is a regular collaborator with the the mysterious master of Japanese free noise, Keiji Haino.Toyozumi with Anthony Braxton and AACM members (1971) Sabu Toyozumi is touring NZ in March with a quartet featuring Jeff Henderson (sax), Tom Callwood (bass) and Daniel Beban (guitar).

Tom Callwood is one of NZ’s most in-demand bass players. He is a member of Phoenix Foundation and has been at the forefront of improvised music and free jazz in NZ since the early 2000s, playing in bands such as Ecstasy Trio, Melancholy Babes, The Woods, Little Bushman and many others.

Jeff Henderson has been pushing the limits of music for two decades. He is a powerful force in the underground NZ music scene, running the Audio Foundation in Auckland, iiii Records, and playing with a huge number of groups. As a saxophonist he is respected around the world for his uncompromising approach to the instrument.

Daniel Beban is a guitarist and sound artist from Wellington. He tours internationally with Orchestra of Spheres and plays in numerous groups including Imbogodom, Sign of the Hag and Mantarays. He is able to conjure a vast pallet of sounds from the guitar.

15/3- Wine Cellar, Auckland
16/3– Common Room, Hastings
17/3– Pyramid Club, Wellington
18/3– Pyramid Club, Wellington (collaborations with local improvisers)
22/3– None Gallery, Dunedin
23/3– Darkroom, Christchurch
24/3– Tim’s Place, Marahau
25/3– Dharma Bum’s Club, Wairau Valley

Tickets for the Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch shows are available from www.undertheradar.co.nz Sabu Toyozumi’s tour is presented by the Audio Foundation and the Sound and Light Exploration Society. Many thanks to the Asia NZ Foundation, Creative New Zealand and the Japan Foundation for supporting this project.

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