Sguru Miyaji (Tenor & Soprano Sax, Clarinet, Flute)

                                                       
 Born on December 15th 1965 in Kobe City, JAPAN, Sguru began studying music at the age of 6. His first instrument was a Yamaha “electone” keyboard. He began to play the alto sax when he was high school student and switched to tenor at the age of 20. He studied law at the Kwanseigakuin University, however he continued studying music and he won a second prize in the “Yamano Big Band Contest” with the KG Swing Charioteers. He left the university before graduation, and won a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and also completed a three-year program of study of jazz improvisation with Jerry Bergonzi. After graduating from Berklee he moved to New York City, and began his musical career with Evelyn Blakey (vo), Denis Charles (ds), Bruce Barth (p), Tito Puente (timb), Jorge Rossi (ds),  
John Stetch (p),etc at Jazz clubs such as “Bird Land”. He came back to Japan in 1996, and began gigging in the Tokyo area. He joined in the “Jazz Shinsengumi” project by King Records. The project released an album in ’98 and a live performance was broadcasted by NHK. Then Sguru formed his own band. This band released a CD on King Records and performed many broadcast programs. 3 years later, he formed another band and named it “New Quartet”. The band released 2 albums and traveled all over Japan performing for local Jazz music fans. Sguru has supported many bands such as “Quadra” and also performed on many recording projects. He plays various styles of music including Rock, Pop Music, Latin and many kinds of world music; not to mention Jazz. As well as tenor sax he also plays soprano sax, clarinet, flute, and more.


the letter of recommendation by Jerry Bergonzi


Street Gig on the Times Square 
NY 1995
w/ Evelyn Blakey (vo), Denis Charles (ds)
NY 1995

Recording Session w/ Adam Cruz (ds), Yosuke Inoue (b), Bruce Barth (p)
NY 1996


w/ Patches Stewart (tp)
Tokyo 2008