Demagogue

Kazutoki Umezu spent much of the 1970's developing his saxophone chops and his eclectic jazz/rock syyle in New York City, playing with artsists like Lester Bowie and Sunny Murray. In the 1990's he worked with artists in the Knitting Factory crowd with his bands First Deserter and Eclecticism.

In 1999, preparing for a tour of Africa, Umezu created the Kiki Band (the first ki comes from the Swahili work kipara which means bald head, the second from kinyonga or chameleon). And this bald chameleon lives up to the title, playing a mixture of rock, jazz, prog, funk, avant-garde, and even klezmer music, always in a bold, aggressive style.