Yasushi Nakamura

Acoustic Bass icon Acoustic Bass

44 age

January 20, 1982 Birthday

Tokyo, Japan Birthplace

www.yasushinakamurabass.com Website

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Yasushi Nakamura is a jazz bassist and educator based in New York City, recognized for his imaginative, quicksilver bass lines and a style that blends guitar-like precision with gut-level blues feeling. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and The Juilliard School, he is a first-call performer who plays in over a dozen bands simultaneously and has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Dave Douglas, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Emmet Cohen. He has performed at venues including the Village Vanguard, Birdland, Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center, and at festivals worldwide. In 2014, he performed at the NEA Jazz Masters Concert honoring Keith Jarrett and Anthony Braxton alongside Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman. He has released two albums as a leader on Atelier Sawano and is a member of the American Patchwork Quartet.

Trivia

Nakamura has a photographic memory for music — he is rarely seen reading charts despite playing in over a dozen bands. According to collaborator Emmet Cohen, he takes one look at the music and recalls it entirely from memory. He was inspired to pick up the electric bass at age fourteen by his older brother's study of guitar and drums. In 2016, he was featured in "For the Love of Duke" with New York City Ballet, choreographed by Susan Stroman. His second album, Hometown, received Album of the Year from JazzLife magazine in 2017.

Early Life

Yasushi Nakamura was born on January 20, 1982, in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to the United States at age nine, settling in Seattle, Washington. He considers both Tokyo and Seattle home. His musical training began at age eleven on clarinet and tenor saxophone, with early influences including Charlie Parker, Ray Brown, and Miles Davis. At fourteen, inspired by his older brother's guitar and drum studies, he picked up the electric bass and soon took up the upright bass as well. Nakamura attended Berklee College of Music, earning a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance in 2000. He then received a full scholarship to The Juilliard School, where he studied under mentors including Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, Carl Allen, and Ben Wolfe, completing his Artist Diploma in 2006.