Keizo Inoue, Tatsuya Nakatani

Kaoru Abe was an influential Japanese free jazz alto saxophonist, who is often regarded as being the greatest abrasive sounding saxophonist. 

He generally performed solo, and died young from a drug overdose, and has since been immortalized in the jazz scene. He became close friends with Milford Graves, Masayuki Takayanagi, Derek Bailey, and Motoharu Yoshizawa, and was married to the author Izumi Suzuki. His cousin was the famous singer Kyu Sakamoto.