Big news for the band is that we have a personnel change (already!) I feel extremely fortunate to have one of the great trumpet players on the scene joining the band:
Yoshiro Okazaki (trumpet)
After graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music, returned to Japan and immediately began playing and touring with many of the major players including Junko Onishi, Seiichi Nakamura, Motohiko Hino, Seiji Tada, and Yoichi Kobayashi. Released debut album "Okazaki Brothers" in 2003. Based in New York from 2005 to 2008, performed with Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, Valery Ponomarev Big Band, and Makoto Ozone's No Name Horses.
The other members of the band are:
Pat Hallaran (trombone)
Cleveland native, long active on the New York scene and a regular member of Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra for many years.
James Mahone (alto and tenor sax)
Monterey, California native but proved himself both in the LA and NY scenes, recording and touring with the famous band Black Note before relocating to Tokyo.
Juasa Kanoh (drums)
Osaka native, studied at Musicians' Institute in Los Angeles, now performs with many top players on Tokyo scene including Pink Bongo, Crystal Jazz Latino, and the Shinji Akita trio.
Simon Cosgrove (piano and sax)
Born in England, studied music at Cambridge University. Since coming to Tokyo has performed with Duke Ellington Orchestra, Martha Reeves, and others. Leads a quintet which has released the well received CD "Treading Water".
We will also be performing in Omiya in February, and Chofu in March. See schedule for details.
I hope to see you there!
For those of you who haven't yet seen my alter-ego as a cymbalist on the big screen, you can now download Nodame Cantabile- the Movie for free, with English subtitles. I heartily encourage a view.Those who can't be bothered with the whole movie can get a few glimpses of me in the trailer.
Many thanks to all the kind folks who joined us for the first two performances of the New Mark Tourian Sextet. We had two really enjoyable evenings, one at Jazz Spot J in Shinjuku, one at Rakuya in Nakameguro. The band is building up a repertoire of new arrangements of jazz standards along with original material that I have written over the last twenty years. At Rakuya we debuted two new arrangements and a new composition entitled "Cleanup". (I'll try to get some sound samples posted soon!)
Our next performance will be at one of my favorite clubs in Tokyo, Jazz Spot J in Shinjuku on Sunday, January 29. It is a cozy space located right on Yasukuni Dori near Kosei Nenkin Kaikan (concert hall). We will be starting from 7:30 and play two shows. 
