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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 music in Japan.Yoshihide, Otomo "Leaving the Jazz Café", Resonance Volume 4 Number 2, 1996, p.6 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 and Kaoru Abe 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.Yoshihide, Otomo "Leaving the Jazz Café", Resonance Volume 4 Number 2, 1996, p.7 note 5. Yoshihide notes that "While many of this first generation have died, or for practical reasons have stopped playing free music, or have sought protection within the small shelter of jazz, Yoshizawa Motoharu is one of the few figures who continues openly to collaborate in free improvisation with various musicians to this day." Yoshizawa Motoharu died in 1998.
Toyozumi features on numerous commercially available recordings with many of the most notable Japanese and international improvising musicians including Derek Bailey, Mototeru Takagi, Misha Mengelberg, Peter Brötzmann, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide,Henritzi, Michel, (September 2008) "Nihon Free Jazz – interview with Yoshisaburo Toyozumi" – Revue et Corrigee Issue 77 Tom Cora and Fred Van Hove.
In 1971 he became the only non-American member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians(AACM)).Lewis, George A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (2008) University of Chicago Press, p. 285 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 biography at AACM website
Toyozumi has been instrumental in bringing many European and American improvisers to Japan including Derek Bailey, Misha Mengelberg and Sunny Murray.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, Lol Coxhill, Phil Minton, John Edwards and Steve Beresford. The Wire 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 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, the late shakuhachi player and Zen master, whose performances mixed martial arts 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.BBC Radio 3 Jazz on 3, 12 October 2009 programme details He continues to tour widely and in the past year or so has performed in Belgium and France, Sabu Toyozumi & Jean Michel Van Schouwburg summer tour 2012 archive listing Chile,Proyectotarabust artists in residence, Sabu Toyozumi Taiwan,Taiwan Gig Guide Roxy Roots concert listing England,Fete Quaqua musicians' biographies PhilippinesE.X.I.S.T. concert listing and Greece.Knot Gallery concert listing He also performs from time to time with the legendary Japanese noise group Hijokaidan. Currently he performs on the erhu – a two-stringed Chinese violin – as often as playing the drums.Eyles, John "Sabu Toyozumi: Kosai Yujyo", All About Jazz, 3 August 2012
As band leader
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