Toru "Tiger" Okoshi was born just outside of Osaka in1950, the year of the Tiger (this year '98 is also the year of the Tiger.) As a child he was, in fact, devoted to painting. When he was 13, however, a friend took him to see Louis Armstrong, who was touring in Japan at the age 60. "He hit me too strong," recalls Okoshi. He took up the trumpet and immersed in jazz.

In 1972, after he graduated from prestigious Kwansei Gakuin University where he obtained his bachelor of Commerce, He got married and went to US for his from honeymoon. They spoke no English. "We took greyhound all the way across country from Los Angeles to Boston, but we were running out of money," Okoshi recalls. "The beauty of it all gave me energy and fire. I knew I couldn't go back." When they arrived in Boston, they decided to sell their return tickets, paid the tuition at Berklee College of Music, and found a studio apartment. He started to practice by the Charles River, which runs between Cambridge and Boston, hoping someone would hear him and ask him to join a band. Which happened.

He graduated from Berklee in 1975, receiving the highest honor of summa sum laude. When word of his abilities spread, he began amassing a lengthy resume: 1974, Performed with the Mike Gibs Orchestra, shared the concert with the legendary Bill Evans trio, at Carnegie Hall in New York; 1975, Toured the entire US with the Budyy Rich Orchestra; 1976-78, Taught at Berklee; 1978-80, Recorded, "Times Square" on ECM Records, featuring Roy Haynes and Steve Swallow, and toured around the world with Gary Burton.

Today, Tiger continues to expand his impressive resume internationally. He is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA USA. He is the Executive Advisor at Koyo Conservatory in Kobe, Hyogo Japan. He is also applied Faculty at Tufts University in Medford, MA USA. Tiger is a JVC recording artist and a Yamaha Clinician on Trumpet and jazz improvisation.

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