Japanese, Tokyo-based alto sax player Makoto Kawashima (川島誠) is known for his idiosyncratic solo practice that aligns him with the tradition of groundbreaking Japanese saxophonists like Kaoru Abe (and he often used Abe’s reed, given to him by Abe’s mother), Tamio Shiraishi, and Masayoshi Urabe.
Kawashima says about his practice: “I see spirits all the time. Shadows, phantoms. They appear at the border between your internal world and where the external world affects you. What I want to do is give a certain concrete reality to those things. The essential part of yourself that your internal eyes want to look away from. I try to make that concrete, to give it a melody and let
