Jun Usuba

Japanese jazz tenor saxophone player Born May 8, 1968 in Tokyo. Graduated from Chuo University, Faculty of Commerce, Department of Business Administration. At the age of 14, he taught himself to play the alto saxophone, and at the age of 16, he switched to the tenor saxophone. He was fascinated by Atsusuke Mine (ts) and learned a lot from him. At the age of 18, he started playing professionally with his own group. He also joined the New Tide Jazz Orchestra at Kunitachi College of Music. Since then, he has played with Ryojiro Furusawa(ds)G, Yoshiaki Okayasu(g)G, Yoshio Suzuki(b) & MATSURI, Tomonao Hara(tp)G, Hiroshi Murakami(ds)G, Isao Miyoshi(g)G, Takeshi Shibuya(p)Orchestra, Takehiro Honda(p)G, Tamaya Honda(ds)G and many other groups. In 1990, he played with Branford Marsalis (ts), and in 1991, at the age of 23, he was selected to tour Japan with former Miles Davis G pianist Kay Akagi. He also performed with Terumasa Hino (tp), Masaaki Kikuchi (p), and Yoshiaki Masuo (g). He is also a close friend of Wilton Felder and Joe Sample of the Crusaders. He has also been the bandleader and arranger for the jazz concerts of actor Masanobu Takashima, a friend of his since his boyhood, and has provided music for his CDs. In the pop music world, he has participated in many recordings and live performances. (MISIA, UA, CHARA, SILVA, KOHHY, Naomi Tamura, Eikichi Yazawa, aiko, LYRICO, SEATBELTS, Masayuki Suzuki, and many others). In 1996, he started his own group "Jun Usuba JAZZ ROOTS". Basically, all songs are his own original compositions, and he actively incorporates a wide range of genres such as FUNK and BRAZIL music, etc., based on JAZZ. On February 21, 2001, his first leader album "Jun Usuba/JAZZ ROOTS" was released from Polystar. SPRING CALYPSO", a song from the album, was used as the the