Biography
Uchihashi Kazuhisa (内橋和久, Kazuhisa Uchihashi) was born in Osaka in 1959. He started playing guitar at the age of 12, and played in folk and rock bands in junior high and high school. While a student at Osaka University of Foreign Languages, he learned jazz technique and started playing in clubs and studios. Since about 1983 he has actively developed music centered on free improvisation, and expanded the possibilities of the electric guitar by innovating various sound effects.
In 1988, Uchihashi joined First Edition, a jazz-oriented improvisational band formed by drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki. (The band is still in existence: besides Uchihashi and Yoshigaki, it now includes trombonist Yutaka Ohara, sax players Hiroyuki Shiotani and Eiichiro Arasaki, and bassist Osamu Mihara.) In Osaka in 1990, Uchihashi and Yoshigaki formed the band Altered States with electric bassist Mitsuru Nasuno. They played jazz clubs initially, but soon began to feel the jazz category was limiting. While retaining the original trio format (often adding a guest musician), they have pursued a freer group improvisation style, incorporating rock textures. Altered States has played at a number of music festivals in and out of Japan, including the Tokyo New Jazz Festival in 1992; the Tallinn (Estonia) International Festival and the Vilnius (Lithuania) Jazz Festival (both featuring turntable and guitar player Yoshihide Otomo) in '93; the Tactlos Festival in Switzerland, Tokyo Noise Core at the Knitting Factory in New York, the Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Canada, and the Fourth International Now Music Festival Sapporo (Japan) in '95; festival Beyond Innocence in Kobe and the Yokohama Jazz Promenade in Japan in '96; and in '97, the Ring Ring Festival in Belgrade, and the LMC Festival in London. In 1994 and '97 they played in Japan with alto sax player Ned Rothenberg.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.