 Masaya
Yamaguchi,
musician, educator; July 18, 1970.
Masaya
Yamaguchi was born as a second
son in Nagano at birth and bred in Tokyo, Japan. During the mid-80's, he
started playing the guitar in rock/pop style (the ridiculous affair still
comes to his mind now and then). Yamaguchi became interested in jazz through
a TV commercial [of "Suntory White"] by Japan's renowned distiller, which
misleadingly featured the jazz bassist, Ronald Carter.
Afterwards,
Yamaguchi made his first purchase of a traditional 4-beat jazz album, which
was John Coltrane's Giant Steps. At the age of 20, Yamaguchi changed his
guitar style completely into jazz under the strong influence of John
Coltrane--developing his own guitar style by all fourths tuning (E, A,
D, G, C, F from the bottom to the top)
All Fourths: A Method For EADGCF Tuning On Guitar (Masaya Music, 2018). He also began to explore the
imaginative formation of musical scales while majoring in English at Meikai
University, Chiba, Japan (B.A. 1994). At the age of 26, he decided to study
in the jazz program at the City College of New York where his idol, Ron
Carter, directed; however, Yamaguchi was distressed about power harassment
from some faculty members. During his college years, he performed with Chico
O'Farrill's son, Arturo O'Farrill in the Graduate Jazz Ensemble. Whereas he
was tormented by tendonitis, he professionally began to transcribe the
recorded performances by John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. In
the end of 20th century, Yamaguchi became the first native
Japanese who completed their Master program in jazz performance from the
City College of New York (M.A. 1999).
Miles Davis: New Research on Miles Davis & His
Circle (Foreword by
Dave Liebman) is just released in June, 2019.
Masaya
Yamaguchi is the author of the books
John Coltrane Plays "Coltrane Changes"
(Hal Leonard Corporation),
The Bird Book - The Charlie Parker
Real Book (Hal Leonard Corporation),
The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales,
Symmetrical Scales for Jazz Improvisation,
Pentatonicism in Jazz:
Creative Aspects and Practice
(Masaya Music Services; formerly from Charles Colin
Music Publications),
Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz
Improvisation (Masaya Music Services),
YAMAGUCHI Improvisation Method
and
Chromaticisim in Jazz: Applying Techniques and
Concepts and he has contributed articles to professional
journals including Down Beat magazine, etc. Because of the reference value
of Yamaguchi's outstanding achievements, the editors of
Marquis Who's Who
have selected his biographical profile for inclusion in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World
and Who's Who of Emerging Leaders. He lives in Manhattan, NYC.
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