Yōsuke Yamashita Explained

Yōsuke Yamashita
Background:non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth Date:26 February 1942
Birth Place:Tokyo, Japan
Instrument:Piano
Genre:Jazz
Occupation:Musician, composer, arranger, writer
Label:Enja Records, West 54 Records, Verve Records
Website:jamrice.co.jp

[1] is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and writer. His piano style is influenced by free jazz, modal jazz and soul jazz.[2] [3]

Since the late 1980s, Yamashita's main performing group has consisted of Cecil McBee (bass), Pheeroan akLaff (drums), and often Joe Lovano (saxophone).

Early life

Yamashita was born in Tokyo, Japan, on 26 February 1942.[4] He had violin lessons between the ages of nine and 15, and switched to piano in his teens.[5]

Later life and career

Yamashita first played piano professionally in 1959, at the age of 17, and attended the Kunitachi College of Music and studied classical composition from 1962 to 1967.[6] In the early 1960s, he "was part of a group, with Terumasa Hino and Masabumi Kikuchi, that met at a jazz club called to play and discuss jazz every night". Yamashita's first released recording was in 1963, and he became a pioneer of avant-garde and free jazz. He was part of Masahiko Togashi's free jazz quartet in 1965, but it disbanded after three months without recording. The pair were part of Sadao Watanabe's band in 1966, but Yamashita and Togashi disagreed about rhythms, leading to the pianist leaving. He formed his own trio in August 1966, with bassist Satoshi Shigami and drummer Shigenori Honjo; around ten months later, they were replaced by Motoharu Yoshizawa and Yoshisaburo Toyozumi, respectively. Saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura was added a short time later. The quartet recorded for the film Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands in 1967. Near the end of that year, Yamashita developed pleurisy, which meant that he was not musically active for almost a year.

In 1969, he formed the Yosuke Yamashita Trio. In 1974, the trio of Yamashita, Akira Sakata (alto sax) and Takeo Moriyama (drums) went on the first of a series of successful European tours, which helped spread beyond Japan Yamashita's and the trio's reputation as driving, fully committed free jazz musicians. The trio broke up in 1983.

In the 1980s, Yamashita formed his New York Trio with bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. In 1994, he was invited to perform at the 50th anniversary concert of jazz label Verve, held at Carnegie Hall. He provided the music for the film Dr. Akagi. He has also led a big band "that combined swing music with free jazz".[4] He has been a visiting professor of music at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Nagoya University of Arts, and his alma mater, Kunitachi College of Music, in addition to publishing work on improvisation and music.

Yamashita performed on a burning piano in 1973 when asked by Japanese graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu to be the subject in his short film, burning piano. Thirty-five years later, clothed in a protective firefighter's uniform, Yamashita repeated the performance on a beach in western Japan, playing jazz improvisations on a piano which had been set alight.[7]

Yamashita is in charge of visiting professor of Jazz course in Kunitachi College of Music since 2010.[8]

Legacy

Critic Marc Moses, writing for The Japan Times in 1990, commented that "It is not an exaggeration to say that Yamashita is probably more responsible than any other individual for broadening the horizon of the creative Japanese jazz scene."[9]

Awards

Discography

Jazz albums

As leader/co-leader

As chamber ensemble “”
(with Shigeharu Mukai and Yahiro Tomohiro)

Other appearances

As sideman

Omnibus Albums

Soundtrack

Selective classical compositions

References

Bibliogrpahy

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Colin Larkin. Guinness Publishing. 1992. First. 0-85112-939-0. 2746.
  2. Web site: 山下洋輔:バイオグラフィー | YOSUKE YAMASHITA:BIOGRAPHY. 6 June 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223535/http://www.universal-music.co.jp/jazz/j_jazz/yamashita/bio.html. 19 October 2021. 2011-06-06.
  3. Web site: Yutaka Sado：avex-CLASSICS. 10 March 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090310143528/http://www.avexnet.or.jp/classics/artist/sado/index_e.html. 19 October 2021. 2009-03-10.
  4. Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestly, Brian (1995) Jazz – The Rough Guide. The Rough Guides. p. 711.
  5. Chiasma liner notes by Horst Weber
  6. Web site: 山下洋輔（ピアニスト） . . ja . Yōsuke Yamashita (pianist) . . March 30, 2020 .
  7. [Reuters]
  8. Web site: ニュース：ジャズ専修設置記者会見を行いました . . April 3, 2020 . ja . News: Announced about the establishment of Jazz course.
  9. Moses, Marc (11 May 1990) "Sax Player Makes Mitochondria a Powerhouse". The Japan Times. p. 17.
  10. Web site: Yosuke Yamashita. IMDb.com. 19 October 2021.

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