Yet another interview to you my dear readers! This time I had the honor and the pleasure to interview a great prominent talent on the rise. Yuto Kanazawa, hailing from Tokyo, Japan is a 26 year old jazz guitarist and composer that is releasing his very first album “Earthwards” at the Scullers Jazz Club on February the 13th. Yuto was kind enough to take time off of his busy schedule to meet with me for a quick interview for the Berklee Blogs. Below this writing is the video for the interview.
Tokyo born, but Fukushima raised, Yuto started his affair with music when he was just three years old, singing, dancing and playing percussion or piano. As a young boy, he adored singing, prompting him to sing tenor in his high school choral groups and by the time he graduated from middle school, he knew that he wanted to be a full time musician.
After finding his father’s discarded nylon-sting classical guitar in the attic. Yuto started playing guitar at 14. Suddenly he was able to explore many styles of music such as folk, rock, pop and heavy metal, before finally falling for jazz at the age of 18 as he enrolled in the Koyo Conservatory in Kobe immediatelly after high school. Kobe and the Conservatory were full of jazz (and also Yokohama), primarily because the American Base Camp located there. That is how jazz arrived in Japan!
Me and Yuto also talked about his story at Berklee and in Boston too. We discussed the challenges international students have to go through in order to be able to legally work in the United States. He told me about how he was able to get his artist visa approved recently and everything that entails that process. We also discussed his upcoming gigs at Scullers on February 13th and in New York at Tomi Jazz on the 17th.
On his time at Berklee College of Music, Yuto formed the Fusion trio named “Yuto Trio” with bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pereon on bass and Jonathan Pinson on drums. After many performances and hours spent together refining their chemistry and their musical interplay, Yuto decided to record his first full length album with the original members of the Yuto trio plus two guests soloists of great Boston renown: Mario Castro on Tenor Saxophone and Felix Peikli on Clarinet.
Stop by on February 13th at the Scullers Jazz Club in Boston for a night of excellent instrumental Jazz music. Tomorrow’s greats seen today!
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