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Yuma Uesaka
Yuma Uesaka (b. 1991) is a saxophonist, clarinetist, and improviser-composer mostly known for his work in jazz and creative music. Since his arrival to New York City in 2014, Yuma quickly built a reputation for his improvisational sensibilities and his powerful sound. As an advocate for music that celebrates modernity, hybridity, and rigor, Yuma works across diverse musical communities including jazz, creative music, and new classical music.
Yuma has performed at many of the notable venues in NYC such as National Sawdust, Roulette, The Jazz Gallery, Cornelia St Cafe, and Zinc Bar. He tours regularly both as a leader and as a sideman, and has performed across the US and beyond, making appearances in international festivals such as Detroit Jazz Festival (US), Lima ICPNA Jazz Festival (Peru), Otsu Jazz Festival (Japan), TU Jazz Festival (Canada), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Festival (China).
He currently co-leads Ocelot, a collaborative trio consisting of Colin Hinton and Cat Toren. Ocelot recorded their debut album in 2019, which is scheduled to be released in late 2020. Yuma released his debut EP, Spear and Shield, in 2015. Dave Sumner (Bird is the Worm) praises the album as a “compelling debut from saxophonist Uesaka, who susses out some powerful moments from his gentle lyricism.”
As a sideman, Yuma has performed and/or recorded with Anna Webber’s New Large Ensemble, Jeff Lederer and The Brooklyn Blowhards; Lex Korten’s Make/Believe; Colin Hinton’s Simulacra; Gabriel Zucker; Lesley Mok’s Living Collection, Peter Nelson’s Ash, Dust, and Chalkboard Cinema; Ken Ychicawa’s Thruworld; Pravin Thompson’s A Thoughtful Collapse; Alec Goldfarb’s Laughing Coffin. Through these projects, he had the pleasure of working with leading musical figures such as Jorge Roeder, Allison Miller, Eric Wubbels, and Kate Gentile, as well as rising young talents such as Nick Dunston, Adam O’Farrill, and Lex Korten. He was also a part of a world premier of Monteverdi Shapero by Alvin Lucier as a part of Ensemble Evolution at Banff Center for the Arts.
Born in London, Yuma spent his early childhood in Nagoya, Japan. He moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan at the age of 8 and started playing the saxophone at the age of 10 and clarinet at age 12. He holds two bachelor’s degrees from University of Michigan, where he majored in Jazz Studies and Computer Science Engineering. He studied with Geri Allen, Robert Hurst, Andrew Bishop, and Erik Santos. An alumnus of Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop and Ensemble Evolution, Yuma worked and studied with cutting edge luminaries such as Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Nicole Mitchell, Amir ElSaffar, Claire Chase, and Steve Schick. Since relocating to NYC, he has studied clarinet with Vasko Dukovski and composition with Eric Wubbels.
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Lesley Mok: The Living Collection
by Hrayr Attarian
Percussionist and composer Lesley Mok is a restless explorer who has also been called a sound artist. However, that designation does not give a full picture of her creative vision. Mok deftly maintains the singular balance between the notated and the improvised as well as abstraction and accessibility, thus breaking out of narrow genreist designations, to make music which is urgently relevant. All this and more is clearly demonstrated on her debut as a leader, the provocative The Living Collection. ...
read moreYuma Uesaka, Marilyn Crispell: Streams
by Neri Pollastri
La grande ed esperta pianista Marilyn Crispell incontra in questo lavoro il giovane e talentuoso sassofonista e clarinettista di origini giapponesi Yuma Uesaka per dar vita a un album caratterizzato dall'equilibrata alternanza di scrittura e improvvisazione, lirismo e libertà. La Crispell ha lavorato con molti dei più importanti maestri del jazz e dell'improvvisazione—da Anthony Braxton a Gary Peacock e Paul Motian—e ha una particolare predilezione per il lavoro in duo, che mette qui a frutto sul materiale messo ...
read moreAnna Webber: Idiom
by Stefano Merighi
Già da oltre un decennio, la complessità della canadese Anna Webber (sax tenore, flauto, composizione) ci interroga sulla possibilità di compenetrare nel jazz di oggi mente e corpo, attitudine concettuale e abbandono rituale. Non è la prima, ovviamente, a lambire questi territori impervi. Si situa, forse, in una geografia sonora che parte da Cecil Taylor e attraversa le gigantesche ombre di Anthony Braxton e Henry Threadgill. Ma, velocemente, sta atterrando in un pianeta sonoro totalmente proprio, come dimostra questo doppio ...
read moreAnna Webber: Idiom
by Hrayr Attarian
Award winning composer, saxophonist and flautist Anna Webber is a restless innovator and musical individualist. Her ninth release as a leader, the sublime and magnificent two-disc Idiom is an ambitious project which Webber pulls off brilliantly and with elegance. Five compositions from the “Idiom" series are represented here. Four are in a sparse trio setting while “Idiom VI," which fills the entire second disc, is with a large ensemble. Another one, “Idiom II," (not included here) appeared on Webber's Clockwise ...
read moreOcelot: Ocelot
by Jerome Wilson
Ocelot is a trio of saxophonist Yuma Uesaka, pianist Cat Toren and drummer Colin Hinton that breaks away from the usual jazz sensibilities, playing music that unwinds laterally and slowly. The individual tracks on their CD may exist in a constant state of quiet contemplation or work up to a grand climax but they all give off a sense of close listening and communication between the three musicians. Several of the tracks stay quiet but intense for most ...
read moreAnna Webber: Idiom
by Mark Corroto
Is Idiom, from composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber, new classical music or jazz? Yes. Is the music scored or improvised? Again, yes. Last question: Is it demanding or easy on the ears? Both. On the heels of two stellar releases, the septet Clockwise (Pi Recordings, 2019) and the Webber/Morris Big Band recording Both Are True (Greenleaf Music, 2020), Webber was commissioned to present Idiom VI at John Zorn's Stone series. She expanded the material from one track heard on ...
read moreYuma Uesaka and Marilyn Crispell: Streams
by John Sharpe
Reedman Yuma Uesaka enlists storied pianist Marilyn Crispell to realize a splendid program of his charts on Streams. Uesaka, who was born in London and spent his early childhood in Japan, before growing up in Michigan, is making a name for himself as part of a rising generation of New York-based improvisers. While not his leadership debut, (he issued an EP on graduating in 2015), this represents a serious statement of intent. He can be heard in saxophonist ...
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