SHOKO IGARASHI QUINTET

About

Shoko Igarashi (sax) ; Pierre-Antoine Savoyat (tr) ; Casimir Liberski (p) ; Jasen Weaver (b) ; Daniel Jonkers (dr) For this second week of our summer residency at Toots, we are delighted to welcome Japanese saxophonist Shoko Igarashi . Born in the heart of the snow-covered landscapes of the Yamagata region, she grew up in a serene, almost mystical environment that deeply shaped her artistic sensibility. She began her jazz training in Tokyo before continuing her studies at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a period in New York, she settled in Brussels in 2018 , where she developed a musical universe infused with her Japanese heritage and strongly influenced by contemporary African-American music. Between 2022 and 2025, she released no fewer than four albums, exploring and breaking down boundaries between genres and instruments. One notable example is Project Tenori , an experimental album created entirely with Yamaha’s Tenori-on , showcasing her inventiveness in the field of electronic music. This week, she explores a new format with an acoustic jazz quintet ,