Quick Facts
AriesBiography
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto (山本剛, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, born 23 March 1948) is a Japanese jazz pianist and composer.
Life and career
Yamamoto was largely self-taught as a pianist, although he did have piano lessons as a child. He attended Nihon University. As a student there, he played professionally, first as an accompanist to pop singer Micky Curtis; they toured Europe in 1967. In 1974, he became house pianist at Misty, a Tokyo jazz club. He also made his recording debut as leader that year. He played major international festivals in the late 1970s. He also "lived in New York for a year, when he performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Sam Jones, Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, and Sonny Stitt, among others."
Playing style
Commenting on Yamamoto's 2008 album What a Wonderful Trio!, Audiophile Audition noted that "Yamamoto seems to favor the very highest reaches of the treble keyboard with great gusto".
Discography
An asterisk (*) after the year indicates that it is the year of release.
As leader/co-leader
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Blues For Tee | Three Blind Mice | |
| 1974 | Midnight Sugar | Three Blind Mice | Trio, with Isao Fukui (bass), Tetsujiro Obara (drums) |
| 1974* | Misty | Three Blind Mice | |
| 1974* | Now's The Time | Three Blind Mice | TBM-29 Isao Suzuki & Sunao Wada With The Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, George Otsuka Quintet |
| 1974* | Live at the Misty | Three Blind Mice | Trio |
| 1974* | Life | East Wind | Trio, with Sam Jones (bass), Billy Higgins (drums) |
| 1974* | The In Crowd | Three Blind Mice | TBM-52 |
| 1975* | Night And Day | Three Blind Mice | Koji Moriyama With The Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio |
| 1975* | Sunny | Frasco | Minami With Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio |
| 1978* | Blues to East | Philips | Trio, with Tsutomo Okada (bass), Hiroshi Murakami (drums) |
| 1980* | P.S. I Love You | Toshiba EMI | With Seiichi Nakamura (tenor sax), Jim McNeely (synthesizer), Shinobu Ito (guitar), Teruo Nakamura (bass), Art Gore (drums), Chuggy Carter and Nobu Urushiyama (percussion) |
| 1981* | Zephyr | Concord | With Bob Maize, Jeff Hamilton, Jeff Clayton |
| 1985* | Another Holiday | Warner Bros. | |
| 1999 | Speak Low | Venus | Trio, with Tsutomu Okada (bass), Yoshitaka Uematsu (drums) |
| 2001* | Autumn in Seattle | First Impression Music | Trio, with Ken Kaneko (bass), Toshio Osumi (drums) |
| 2008 | What a Wonderful Trio! | First Impression Music | Trio, with Hiroshi Kagawa (bass), Toshio Osumi (drums) |
| 2013 | Gentle Blues | Venus | Trio, with Hiroshi Kagawa (bass), Toshio Osumi (drums) |
| 2013 | What a Wonderful World | Venus | Trio, with Hiroshi Kagawa (bass), Toshio Osumi (drums) |
As sideman
| Year recorded | Leader | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977* | Otomo, YoshioYoshio Otomo | Moon Ray | Three Blind Mice |