Veteran Japanese tenor saxophonist Yasuhiro Kohama comes to Smalls leading a quintet featuring four musicians from Thailand's jazz scene, including fellow saxophonist Pathorn Srikaranonda.

🎶 A major figure in Japanese jazz for more than four decades, Kohama founded the C.U.G. Jazz Orchestra in 1989 and continues to lead the ensemble today. The orchestra has released more than ten albums on his own CUG Records label, with performances in Japan and internationally. Kohama also leads his own quartet and regularly performs in smaller jazz groups, bringing the same dedication to bebop and straight-ahead jazz that has guided his career since the 1980s.

🌏 His international work includes the East West Alliance, a longstanding collaboration with American trumpeter Jay Thomas and Japanese alto saxophonist Atsushi Ikeda, along with performances in the United States, Korea and China. He has appeared three times at Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival and continues to work with musicians from Japan and abroad. His career has also included collaborations with the Hiroshi Murata Bop Band and the Masahiko Osaka & Tomonao Hara Quintet. In 2006, the C.U.G. Jazz Orchestra received the Aichi Prefecture Arts and Culture Award.