Today we’d like to introduce you to Yosuke Nagayama

Hi Yosuke, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

I am Yosuke Nagayama, a professional jazz drummer and a composer. I was born and grew up in Japan, and currently living in New York. I started playing drums at age of 12 under the musical influences of my parents. My father was playing the drums as his hobby and he introduce me to playing drum set. My mother was also a classical piano teacher and I had been surrounded by music since I was little and I believe those environment made the drum set a more friendly instrument for me to get start. Since my parents liked to listen to jazz and fusion music, I was playing the drums along with those type of music when I was a beginner. Listening and playing jazz fusion music defiantly helped my drum techniques improved faster because those type of music requires improvisation and it requires more techniques to improvise. I also started taking drum lessons from professional drummer Masanori Okano and he introduced me to some great jazz albums and told me some names of great jazz drummers that I should know. Then I was digging into jazz music by myself and spending more time listening to jazz and I was fascinated with the sound of jazz completely. After I graduated from high school, I enrolled to Senzoku college of music, that has jazz major, to learn jazz more seriously. During my college years, I was able to meet and play with greatest musicians/professors in Japan. The time I spend with them and what I learned from them definitely made my strong musical foundation and made me who I am now as a drummer. There was one memorable moment while I was in college that eventually made me decide to move to New York. It was my final year at the college and had an opportunity to go to New York as music research trip. During the trip, I went to a jam session and I had an interesting experience there. I was at the table listening musicians playing famous jazz standard songs that I have played many times in Japan. Even I was already familiar with the songs, it sounded very different from what I used to hear or play. In Japan, it felt like there are always some common understandings or rules to play some jazz standard songs: this song is usually played or should be played in this tempo or with this rhythm or this style. It felt like the music was categorized and put in the boxes. But at the jam session in New York, I felt there were none of them. Even though the musicians were playing those jazz standards in a similar way as in Japan, the music itself sounded more open and flexible. It felt like every songs they played and every different styles of the music they played were just sitting next to each other, not in the boxes , and it can be changed into any shape anytime. That experience changed my perspective of music drastically. After I graduated from college, I was able to gain musical skills and experiences through playing many gigs, going tours, having recordings and attending to multiple jazz festivals. At the time, I was feeling more confident about playing music because I felt I was more experienced and many musicians and audiences acclaimed about my playing, then I found my self thinking “I know how to play music because I reached to a certain level.” and I didn’t like myself thinking that way. I felt I need to be more polite and modest, respect the music. I knew I still have many things to learn and I needed to change my mind set to be a better musician. It was around turning to 30 years old and I wanted to change my environment. The memorable experience I had in New York was always stuck in my mind and I thought that I might need to go to New York if I want to be a better jazz musician. New York is the place where the jazz has been evolving through the musical history and all the greatest jazz musicians playing every night and always something is happening musically, so I decided to move to New York. After moving to New York, my thoughts about music became much clear because I always can find some answers or new discoveries by watching greatest musicians and even sometime I have a chance to play with them, and it changed my way of playing music a lot. When I was in Japan, I was always trying to figure out how those great musicians can play music perfectly and I always try to make the music sound perfect, no mistake and make it like completed package. It was almost like doing a “job”, not playing music. But after I moved to New York, I feel I’m enjoying playing music and more relaxed about it because I’ve been able to see great musicians often in person and sometime play with, and I found they also play differently every time, like having some up and downs (in much higher level), but they always enjoy playing music, discovering something new and having fun. That makes me think that the music is really an organic thing and it doesn’t have to be always same quality because we are also different every day. That makes me finding a beauty of music and I’m enjoying it when I play music.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

I can’t say there has been a smooth road for me as musician because there is always musical up and down, try and error. Sometime I feel really good when I’m playing but after listening back to the recording, it actually didn’t sound that great. Sometime I feel I sound terrible, but it turns out it sounded good. I’m sure it’ll be a long musical journey and it might never end. However, I had one great learning experience after I moved to New York. There was one musician that I started to play together often but I always struggle playing music with him. While I’m playing music, I always try to be responsible when I play something different or something adventurous. I always think how my actions would affect to other musician’s playing and I try to make sure everyone feels comfortable musically if I take the action. But to me, he plays music totally opposite way. He tends to play something interesting and adventurous (there is nothing wrong with it), but he does it without thinking the results or how his action affect to other musicians. To me, he sounded like he only plays what he wants to play without thinking other musicians and has no responsibility about what he plays, and it eventually leads to make everyone lost the form of the song (most of the jazz songs have certain forms and we always follow the form), and that always gives me hard time to play with him and ends up with some struggles. One night, I had a show with him and he played another set with other drummer, so I was able to watch how he would play with a different drummer. It turned out he sounded amazing with the drummer and I was surprised and wondering what makes the difference. I kept watching and listening to them and noticed that the drummer actually makes everything work and sound great. Whenever I play with him, I tend to try to control him and steer the music to a right direction, keep everyone on the right track, not to lose the form. But the other drummer did none of them. The drummer was simply playing along with him and let the music wherever it goes. The drummer sounded like almost he didn’t care about the person’s playing but he was actually supporting everyone without changing his drum playing. It sounded like the drummer and the person coexisted harmoniously without changing their styles. I was curious how they did it and I found out that that happened because the drummer had a really strong foundation about his drumming. He had such a strong time feel and solid drum techniques, and that makes his drumming very clear, easy to understand what he plays. Then his drumming became a strong foundation in the music, supporting everyone, so other musicians were feeling comfortable and they always knew where they were, so they won’t lose the form of the song. It’s like his drumming makes everything in the right place and makes music very clear and transparent, so everyone can understand what is happening at the moment without thinking. Then it made me realized I’ve been relying on other musicians to make my drumming stable, and once someone plays something different, my drumming becomes unstable and it affects to other musicians. On the other hand, that drummer wasn’t relying on other musicians at all because he had a strong stem in his drumming and he already sounded very musical just by himself and other musicians were gravitated to him naturally and were lead to the right direction, not to be forced at all, and his playing only made other musicians sound great. Even though he wasn’t relying on others, he was actually listening to other musicians very carefully and he made him drumming very simple to make some spaces in the music to let other musicians come in and let them play more freely. I was always making other musicians as my excuse when the music doesn’t sound good because I was thinking I was doing my best. Maybe I was doing my best at that time, but I wasn’t simply good enough. I simply need to work harder and need to become “music” just by myself before making any excuses for the music doesn’t sound good. It was such an eye opening experience for me to witness that the other drummer can do what I can’t do under the same situation and it was one of my greatest lesson that I had in my career.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

I’ve been playing drums as professional jazz musician for about 19 years and I’ve developed my drumming style through my career. I believe what makes my style different from other drummers is my touch about playing drums. Since I started playing drums as a kid, I’ve always had specific image of sound in my mind. It is the sound that has delicate and sensitive tones, comfortable to hear, not to cover other instrument’s sound and make the best volume balance between other instruments. I’m also trying to achieve this sound even when I play loud because the quality of the tone tend to get poor and sloppy when drummer play loud. I might not be able to play very loud and strong like many other drummers but I have a confidence in playing with soft volume while keeping the energy and I believe that is my specialized area. There is a group that I’ve been playing with and my soft volume drumming is really useful when I play with them. The group is called “Rock Voices” and it is a choir that sings only rock music. Even though they sing rock music, the choir requires a drummer to play much softer volume because they always have concerts at churches and usually the churches has lot of natural reverb for the sound environment because the building structure. If the drummer play too loud, other instruments and choir also go loud, then all the sound would go around inside the church and the sound becomes unclear and foggy because of too much reverb. For the Rock Voices, the drummer also need to maintain the energy while playing softly, which is not easy because playing soft requires more precise drum stick control. If you feel uncomfortable playing softly, you’ll lose your confidence and the music will lose the energy. So my drumming style fits the music of Rock Voices very well even I usually play jazz, and I’m enjoying it.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?

I’d also like to address that I released my first album “Start” in 2021 and I wanted this album to be a showcase as a composer. I started composing when I was in music college and I’ve been trying to combine the essence of music that I’ve been influenced. My mother was a piano teacher and I was able to listen to her playing many pieces from classical music. She especially liked to play French composer’s pieces by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy and their music definitely became my musical influences. Another big influences were film scores, especially by John Williams and Alan Silvestri. Their music are so dramatic, emotional and memorable that gives each movies own voices and makes them unique and special. You’ll also hear many elements of classical music and jazz in their works, and I believe that is one of the reason why I’ve always fascinated by their music. I’m also a big fan of the sound from the record label “ECM”. ECM is well known for jazz record label and has distinguished dark and ambient sound, sounds like combining the elements of classical music, jazz and experimental music. When I compose, I definitely imagine the sound of ECM and want to my compositions to sound little mysterious. I’ve always tried to combine these musical influences into my compositions that has an improvisation and an excitement of jazz, rich ambience of classical music, dramatic and memorable sound of film music, and It was a great opportunity to present my original music with releasing my first album.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yosukenagayama.com