Meet Gen Yoshimura | Drummer/Composer/Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gen Yoshimura and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gen, why did you pursue a creative career?
Since I was a kid, I’ve always loved music. And my mother always wanted me to play music. She took me to lots of concerts, showed me many different kinds of instruments. I had a lot of options, but i finally chose cajon and my mother sighed me up for lessons. In the first day of the lessons, I was so excited and I opened the door. There was a drumset instead of cajon, then I thought “That’s even cooler!” That’s how I started playing drums. I used to play Japanese Jazz/Rock fusion music. I was playing well at my house with a practice kit that my mother made, but that was the whole world for me at the time. When I was in the first grade of middle school, we found out there was a week-long jazz seminar directed by a world-class trumpeter, Tiger Okoshi and some professors at Berklee College of Music. I participated in the seminar and that experience changed my life. Everything that the professor taught me was very new for me, I was totally shocked, I felt like I came to a different world. And that was the first time I saw a performance by world-class musicians. I was simply amazed by that. Since then, I gradually got into jazz, and thinking seriously about pursuing music as my career. Music was always in my life, I had simply enjoyed listening to music and playing drums. But my feeling towards music changed. I got truly impressed in the seminar, and I started to feel that I want to develop my ability more and share that feeling with many people. I followed my dream. I came to US, studied at Berklee, and now working as a professional musician based in boston.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I consider myself as a jazz drummer. But I would say my trait as a performer is being able to play many different styles of music. Jazz is becoming a very wide genre. Since Jazz is about improvisation and experimenting, nowadays it’s mixed up with a lot of styles, rhythms, harmonic aspects. I learn/play many styles of music such as jazz, pop, funk, in many different meters, etc… but also, especially, various kinds of Latin music. People often define “Latin” as a name of a rhythm or genre, but there are lots of different kinds of “Latin”. There are many Latin countries like Cuba, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, and many other etc… and they all have a lot of different kinds of rhythms and styles. Especially in jazz music it’s important to have a creativity. but I think it’s also very important to have an authenticity as well. So I think one of my mission as a musician is to always learn different kinds of music as much as possible and share them. Also as a performer, I think we all have to be unique. And in order to be unique, my approach was not only developing my instrumental technique. But also being able to adjust to many styles. So I would say as a professional drummer, that is one of my biggest characteristic.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would like to take my friends to walk around the city to see the buildings. I have been living in Boston for 7 years and I would say one of the best parts in Boston is its buildings. It’s European influenced, old style building and it’s absolutely beautiful. When I first came here, I felt like I was in a disney story or something. I’m from Japan, and I have a lot of friends there. In Japan, buildings are very square and organized, probably because we have earthquake there, buildings have to be strong. So if my friends visit me from Japan, I think they will feel similar to what I felt. Also there are a lot of world-famous universities in Boston, like Harvard, MIT, Berklee and so on, and each universities have different vibes. So I would also take my friends to those campuses as well.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve been proudly endorsing Paiste Cymbals, Canopus Drums, Stack Ring Percussion. My music is supported by their amazing products, so I would like to thank them. I would like to also appreciate my mom, my family, friends, everyone who have been supporting my dream and career. It has been really challenging to come to a different country and build my career as a professional musician, without their support, it’s impossible.

Website: https://www.genyoshimuramusic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gen.yoshimura/?hl=ja

Image Credits
Erin Crowley