Contemporary sax-driven quintet jazz; includes Latin, funk, blues, Brazilian, acoustic music and ECM type of essence.

9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Contemporary Jazz, JAZZ: Jazz Fusion



Details:
An ambitious work of this young man will surely activate the jazz scene of Japan - Yosuke finished up his album, "Sleepin' Sheep" in pop and unique contemporary-jazz style, adding the flavor of samba, broken beat, brazilian beat and odd meter to it. "Sleepin' Sheep" triggers the activation of the jazz scene in Japan.

- Makoto Goto, Jazz Life Magazine


"Sleepin' Sheep" is the first album released by a saxophonist/composer Yosuke Kurita. This album contains nine original compositions and they were all created on a concept, "Love songs for the Earth." Two sessions were recorded. He prepared two rhythm sections in order to bring out many essences of music such as; swing, funk, samba, Brazilian music, acoustic music, and ECM. This has been featured in various publications including Jazz Life Magazine, Swing Journal, Jazz Hihyou and Jazzyell. The fact that the first issue of this album has been sold out proves its high quality of music.

Yosuke Kurita - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones
Ken Sakama - Electric Guitars
Takayoshi Baba - Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Chieko Maki, Keijin Shu - Piano
Midori Ono - Hammond B-3 Organ
Shuichi Nakano, Takuya Sakazaki - Bass
Hiroshi "GORI" Matsuda, Ryo Shibata - Drums
Shinichiro Miyake - Percussion


Yosuke Kurita started playing electric organ at the age of 4 and began playing the sax when he was 13. He saw the immense possibility in the saxophone and decided to pursue a career in music at the age of 20.
As a graduate of Berklee College of Music, he studied with Walter Beasley, George Garzone, Ted Pease, Steve Rochinski and Fernando Brandao. Ever since he moved to Kyoto, Japan in 2004, he has been performing widely in Japan.