Special Jazz Concert with Yamashita Yosuke

01 and 02 Feb 2018, 8 pm
Hanoi Opera House

From ticketvn.com:

You are invited to a Spring Jazz Concert with Japanese pianist Yamashita Yosuke, featuring:

Conductor: Honna Tetsuji
Jazz Pianist: Yamashita Yosuke
Saxophone: Quyen Van Minh
and the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra

Program

Leonard Bernstein – Musical”Candide” Overture

Leroy Anderson
– Jazz pizzicato
– Jazz legato
– Waltzing cat

George Gershwin – “American in Paris”
Fukushima Folksong – “Aizubandaidan”
Duke Ellington – “Take the A train”
George Gershwin – “Rhapsody in blue”

Yōsuke Yamashita (born 26 February 1942) is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and writer. He is praised by critics for his unique piano style, which is influenced by free jazz, modal jazz and soul jazz.

Yamashita first played piano professionally in 1959, at the age of 17, and attended the Kunitachi College of Music from 1962 to 1967. In the early 1960s he “was part of a group, with Terumasa Hino and Masabumi Kikuchi, that met at a jazz club called Gin-Paris to play and discuss jazz every night”. Yamashita’s first released recording was in 1963, and he became a pioneer of avant-garde and free jazz. In 1969, he formed the Yosuke Yamashita Trio. In 1974, the trio of Yamashita, Akira Sakata (alto sax) and Takeo Moriyama (drums) went on the first of a series of successful European tours, which helped spread beyond Japan Yamashita’s and the trio’s reputation as driving, fully committed free jazz musicians. The trio broke up in 1983.

For reference: Yosuke Yamashita’s “Burning Piano” performance at Noto Resort Area Masuhogaura in 2008:

In the 1980s, Yamashita formed the “New York Trio” 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. He provided the music for films such as Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands and Dr. Akagi. He has also led a big band “that combined swing music with free jazz”. He has been a visiting professor of music at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Nagoya University of Arts, and his alma mater, Kunitachi College of Music, in addition to publishing work on improvisation and music.

Yamashita performed on a burning piano in 1973 when asked by Japanese graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu to be the subject in his short film, burning piano. Thirty-five years later, clothed in a protective firefighter’s uniform, Yamashita repeated the performance on a beach in western Japan, playing jazz improvisations on a piano which had been set alight.

Tickets

Ticket prices: 300,000 – 400,000 – 600,000 VND. All tickets available at Hanoi Opera House or can book online at ticketvn.com.

For free ticket delivery, call: 0913489858, 0983067996.

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