Testimonial from Tokuhiro Doi

My first impression when I tried out the Aizen mouthpiece? Well, to be honest, I was blown away. It just plays the sound straight. And it’s so easy.

I’ve been through loads of pieces, and tried out all kinds of settings. But, with the Aizen I thought ・ｽgWhat have I been doing all this time? Why have I been running from pillar to post all these years?・ｽh That’s how smooth and easy the flow is with this piece. It’s like you’ve been sick forever and suddenly you’re all clear.

And another thing I should point out is that the control is incredibly easy with this piece. As far as control goes, I think the ideal situation is where you don’t have to think about it at all. You just blow and go. With the Aizen piece, that’s what you get. Just blow and go, no need to think about it.

So that’s what blew me away, anyway. I’d pretty much never come across a piece like this, that just plays it the way you want it  and this is something that’s given me trouble since the first day I picked up a sax.

Over the last few years, I’ve mainly been gigging on the clarinet, and I don’t have as many chances to play sax as I used to. Somehow, when I did, it didn’t feel so much fun anymore. I was sort of wondering if I wasn’t going to end up abandoning the sax altogether. But thanks to the Aizen, the old mojo’s back when it comes to the sax.

This year I’m actually booked as a sax player more than usual, so I’m gonna be out there a lot. And this piece is something I’m going to treasure. And I’m getting good reactions from people around me, y’know? So I’m really looking forward to gigging a lot more with this Aizen piece, really using it for all it’s got.

AIZEN alto NY



Biography

Tokuhiro Doi began his life in music at junior high school, and studied clarinet under the well-known Nobuaki Hamada. After high school, he attended the Yamaha Music Academy, studying classical clarinet under Hiroshi Uchiyama, classical sax under Hitomi Hara and jazz sax under Hisashi Yoshinaga  again, all highly renowned musicians in their own right.

In 1997, he received a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, his instructors included Harry Skoler for clarinet, and George Garzone and Frank Tiberi for sax. 2002 saw Tokuhiro back in Japan. The following year, he came second in the prestigious Nonaka Saxophone Competition.

As a writer, Tokuhiro had a two-year stint as a regular columnist in the quarterly Nonaka Saxophone Press from 2006 to 2008.

Currently, Tokuhiro is active gigging on a number of instruments, with the clarinet as his main instrument. As a saxophonist, he’s also active in a whole roster of cutting-edge ensembles  the Kyoko Satoh Little Orchestra, the Tokyo Brass Art Orchestra, the Mike Price Jazz Orchestra, Sugadairo, the Routine Jazz Sextet, and the BLT Orchestra. He also plays in the orchestra pit at musicals in world-famous venues like the Imperial Garden Theater in Tokyo and the all-female revue Takarazuka Theater. In print, his publications include Alto Sax First Stage and Tenor Sax First Stage (both as general editor, published by Zen-on Music Co., in Japanese).

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tokuhirodoi