About Me
Bassist and Composer
Yasushi Nakamura, born in Tokyo, Japan, 1982, grew up in Seattle, WA.
His musical training began at age 11 with clarinet and tenor saxophone. He
began playing electric bass at age of 14, but a year later he decided to
learn both upright and electric bass. In Seattle, he studied with Chuck
Deardorf, Doug Miller, and Michael Stearns and has received such awards as
Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival award, All-State, Louis Armstrong Jazz Award
and more.After graduating Newport High School in 2000, Yasushi went on to study jazz
at Berklee college of Music. When he was at Berklee, he studied with Whit
Browne, Hal Crook, Ron Mahdi, John Lockwood, and Phil Wilson. Yasushi
received his bachelor’s degree in performance from Berklee College of
Music in 2003. In 2004, he got accepted to the Juilliard School for full scholarship
and studied under Ben Wolfe. He graduated from the Juilliard School for
Artist Diploma in Jazz studies in 2006.He has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Monterey
Jazz Festival, and all over the world. He has also been invited to perform
with the 2003 Jazz Aspen Snowmass academy led by Christian McBride, the
2004 Ravinia Jazz Festival, and 2004 Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead at Kennedy
Center. Also He was invited to perform at UNESCO in Paris, France with
Nathan Davis. He has played with Carl Allen, Darren Barrett, David Berger,
Victor Goines, Wycliff Gordon, Benny Golson, Barbara Lea, Jon Hendricks,
Eddie Henderson, Hank Jones, John Pizzareli, Wynton Marsalis, Myron Walden,
Loren Schoenberg, Frank Wess, Richard Wyands, Jackie Williams and Phil Wilson.
He is currently based in New York, and performing and recording all over the world venues including BlueNote, Birdland, Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and many more.
