Yosuke Yamashita

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Yōsuke Yamashita 2006

Yōsuke Yamashita ( Japanese 山下 洋 輔 , Yamashita Yōsuke ; born February 26, 1942 in Tokyo Prefecture ) is a Japanese pianist of creative jazz . In Europe in the 1970s he was considered "the best-known representative of Japanese free jazz" ( Martin Kunzler ). With an initially total use of energy and finally more and more subtle differentiation, he developed his own music, which at first often met with incomprehension as "Kamikaze jazz". On the other hand, his piano colleague Walter Norris said: “He is far more than a very good technician, he has the same power to express himself as we heard it from Charlie Parker. Of course there may be people who call this music just some kind of noise, but they are completely wrong. Yamashita reflects the present in his music. "

Live and act

Yamashita first took violin lessons as a child; He played the piano in his brother's Dixieland band and took private lessons from a pianist. From 1962 to 1967 he studied composition, piano and music history at the Kunitachi Music Academy ( Kunitachi Ongaku Daigaku ). At this time he was already performing with the bands of Terumasa Hino , Masabumi Kikuchi and Sadao Watanabe . In 1969 he founded his trio, which was a free power play , with the saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura , who was later replaced by Akira Sakata and presented the drummer Takeo Moriyama and Shōta Koyama and the first albums, which were initially only released on the Japanese market. In 1974 he completed a very successful European tour with the trio with performances at the Moers Festival , the Donaueschinger Musiktage and the Berlin Jazz Days . In the next few years further guest appearances followed in Europe, where the trio was strengthened by Manfred Schoof or Adelhard Roidinger . In Japan he performed on the one hand with Akira Sakata, Toshinori Kondō , Gerald Ohshita , Hideaki Mochizuki and Shota Koyama in the Jam Rice Sextet , on the other hand with Masahiko Satō in a duo. In 1979 Yamashita presented his trio for the first time in the United States, where he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival , but also recorded the album "First Time" with the AACM musicians Joseph Jarman , Malachi Favors and Don Moye . In the 1980s he gave more space to tonal differentiations and began to be interested in large-format ensembles; he led a big band and recorded his own compositions with the Ōsaka Philharmonic Orchestra , as well as Gershwin's “ Rhapsody in Blue ”. In addition, he has now also performed with traditional percussion ensembles such as Kodō from Japan (album "Kodo Vs. Yosuke Yamashita - Live", 1986) or Samulnori from South Korea. With the shakuhachi player Hōzan Yamamoto he played the album "Bolero", with Bennie Wallace "Brillant Corners". There were also concerts and recordings with Bill Laswell , Lester Bowie , Elvin Jones and Max Roach . In 1988 he founded his “New York Trio” with Cecil McBee and Pheeroan akLaff , which also performed with Joe Lovano , Ravi Coltrane and Tim Berne and presented recordings such as “Crescendo”, “Sakura Live” and “Wind of Age”. At the same time, he had a Japanese trio. Yamashita is also a widely read essayist; he has published more than ten books in Japan.

In May 2003, Yamashita was awarded the ribbon in purple by the Japanese government for his services. Since 2004 he has been a visiting professor at the Kunitachi University of Music . In 2008 he played on his burning (old) grand piano and had himself filmed.

Discographic notes

  • Clay ( Enja , 1976) solo
  • Chiasma (MPS Records, 1976) Trio with Akira Sakata (as) and Takeo Moriyama (dr) live in Heidelberg 1975
  • Banslikana (Enja, 1976) solo
  • Inner Space (Enja, 1977) with Adelhard Roidinger
  • It Don't Mean A Thing (DIW, 1984) solo
  • Breath (Denon, 1984) with Hōzan Yamamoto and Masahiko Togashi
  • Kurdish Dance ( Verve 1993) with Joe Lovano , Cecil McBee and Pheeroan akLaff
  • Dazzling Days (Verve, 1993)
  • Fragments 1999 (Verve, 1999) with McBee & akLaff
  • Resonant Memories (Verve, 2000) solo

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Yamashita, Yosuke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 山下 洋 輔 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese creative jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo prefecture