Yōsuke Yamashita
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| Yōsuke Yamashita | |
 Yōsuke Yamashita in 2006.
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| Born | February 26, 1942 Tokyo, Japan |
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Yōsuke Yamashita (山下 洋輔 Yamashita Yōsuke, born February 26, 1942) is a jazz pianist from Tokyo, Japan. He first began to play professionally at the age of 17, and attended the Kunitachi College of Music from 1962 to 1967.
Yamashita formed the Yosuke Yamashita New York Trio in 1988 with bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. In 1994 he was invited to perform at the 50th anniversary concert of jazz label Verve, held at Carnegie Hall, and was the only Asian musician to play at the event.
Yamashita moved into film scoring in 1998, scoring the Shohei Imamura film Kanzo Sensei, and his work in this earned him the "Education Minister's Education Award," amongst others. This was followed by his score for Kihachi Okamoto's Vengeance Is Such A Great Business.
In May 2003 Yamashita was awarded a Purple Ribbon by the Japanese Government for his contributions to the arts and academia, and since 2004 he has served as a visiting professor at Kunitachi College of Music.
He is also known for playing a piano that is engulfed in flames while he plays. The audience is not in danger of being on fire, and neither is Yamashita as he wears a flame retardant suit. The pieces are improvised and he plays until the strings snap and the piano can no longer make music.
