Yōsuke Yamashita


Yōsuke Yamashita is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and writer. His piano style is influenced by free jazz, modal jazz and soul jazz.
Since the late 1980s, Yamashita's main performing group has consisted of Cecil McBee, Pheeroan akLaff, and often Joe Lovano.
WWW jamrice.co.jp

Early life

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

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. In the early 1960s, he "was part of a group, with Terumasa Hino and Masabumi Kikuchi, that met at a jazz club called Ginparis 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 and Takeo Moriyama 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". 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.
Yamashita is in charge of visiting professor of Jazz course in Kunitachi College of Music since 2010.

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."

Awards

Discography

Jazz albums

As leader/co-leader

Dancing Kojiki – the first live recording at Waseda University with Seiichi Nakamura and Takeo MoriyamaConcert in New Jazz - the first professional live recording with Seiichi Nakamura and Takeo MoriyamaMina's Second Theme – studio, trio with Seiichi Nakamura and Takeo MoriyamaMokujiki – studio, trio with Seiichi Nakamura and Takeo MoriyamaApril Fool: Coming Muhammad Ali – studio, trio with Seiichi Nakamura and Takeo Moriyama
  • with Masahiko Sato, Piano Duo – live at Asahi Seimei Hall, Clay – studio, trio with Akira Sakata, Takeo MoriyamaYosuke Alone – solo
  • with Manfred Schoof, Akira Sakata, Takeo Moriyama, Distant Thunder – liveBreathtake – soloChiasma – with Akira Sakata, Takeo Moriyama, recorded in 1975Banslikana – solo, recorded in 1975
  • with Yasutaka Tsutsui, Ie – recorded in 1975-76A day in Music – duo with Adelhard RoidingerMontreux Afterglow – trio live at Montreux Jazz FestivalArashi – with Gerald Oshita, Umbrella Dance'
  • with Adelhard Roidinger, Inner Space Wave Song – with Adelhard Roidinger
  • with Yasutaka Tsutsui, Yasutaka Tsutsui - Bunmei Sunayama Invitation – Yosuke In The Gallery First Time
  • with Haruna Miyake, Exchange Jugemu – A Figure of Yosuke Yamashita Vol. 1 and Vol.2 Picasso - Live, And Then... - recorded in 1982. CD reissue in 2015.Washinopanjya!! It Don't Mean a Thing – solo
  • with Hozan Yamamoto, Masahiko Togashi, Breath It Don't Mean A Thing
  • with Ruri Shimada, Goji Hamada, V.A., Winter Music Sentimental
  • with Mal Waldron, Piano Duo Live At Pit Inn
  • with Kodō, In Live Rhapsody in Blue
  • with Hozan Yamamoto, Bolero Plays Gershwin Crescendo - Live At Sweet Basil Sakura – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffSakura Live – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffKurdish Dance – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffDazzling Days – with Lovano, Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffAsian Games – with Bill Laswell and Ryuichi SakamotoPlayground Ways of Time – with Tim Berne, Lovano, Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffSpider – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffCanvas In Quiet - Homage To Morio Matsui Stone Flower - Homage To A.C. Jobim Duo Live in Warehouse with Eitetsu Hayashi - live in TokyoBallads For You - live in Fuji, ShizuokaGolden Circle "6" - live in HamamatsuFragments 1999 – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffResonant Memories – solo. recorded in 2000.Graceful Illusion Delightful Contrast – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffYamashita, Yosuke Trio - recorded in 1973Grandioso – with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan AklaffBolero / Pictures at an Exhibition – with special bigbandYosuke Yamashita x Dairo Suga – with From The New World - with special bigbandIn Europe 1983 -complete edition- - recorded in Germany 198330 Light -years Floating with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan Aklaff
As chamber ensemble “Hakkozan”'

  • ''Hakkozan''

Other appearances

As sideman
Omnibus AlbumsJazz in Tokyo '69 Memories of Bill Evans
  • ''Gets Gilberto + 50''

Soundtrack

Dixieland Daimyo Dr. Kanzo Original Soundtrack / Yosuke Yamashita on Cinema Vengeance for Sale Original Soundtrack 天使の恍惚 Soundtrack - recorded in 1972

Selective classical compositions