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| Yosuke Onuma featuring Jacques Schwarz-Bart |
FEATURING:
Yosuke Onuma, guitar
Jacques Schwarz-Bart, saxophone
Reggie Washington, bass
Milan Milanovic, keyboards
Olivier Juste, percussion
Arnaud Dolmen, percussion |
Yosuke Onuma is one of Japan's foremost jazz guitarists. With six hitreleases and live performances in such diverse places as the UnitedStates, Italy, Hong Kong and Indonesia, he is quickly becoming known around the world. Inside Japan, he has grown to dominating fame as thenew leader of the next generation of jazz guitarists, complete with in-depth profiles, interviews, transcriptions of his solo guitar arrangements appearing in magazines, and even a book on sale dedicated entirely to him.
In 1995, Onuma represented Japan at the Heritage International Jazz Guitar Competition, placing third among top-notch competitors from all over the world. In 1999, he won the grand prize at the Gibson Jazz Guitar Competition, and, in 2001, came out with his debut album, "nujazz," through Sony Music Japan. Afterreleasing three groove-jazz albums, in 2004 Onuma released his ground-breaking fourth album, "The Three Primary Colors," recorded as a trio with Richard Bona (bass) and Ari Hoenig (drums) in New York. This highly acclaimed album showed a change in Onuma's style which still holds to this day; a style characterized by exclusively using finger-picking - abandoning the use of a guitar pick entirely. He performed at the Tokyo Jazz Festival, the largest of its kind in Japan, in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he had a rousing performance at the Java Jazz Festival, held in Jakarta.
That same year, taking inspiration from the other important part of his life besides the guitar - surfing - Onuma released his sixth album, "Beautiful Day." Onuma worked on this album with engineer Al Schmitt in the surf-culture mecca of beachside Los Angeles. With this album, which has been called by some, "jazz's answer to surf music", Onuma has, in fact, created a fresh sound, a perfect union of the sounds of the sea and the music of the guitar.
Currently, Onuma is composing pieces for percussion for an upcoming album that expands on the concepts underlying "Beautiful Day."
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