Indian music really makes you fly: Yuichiro Tokuda

Yuichiro Tokuda, who was born in Japan, studied music at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, USA. The young musician was in Hyderabad recently to perform at a club.

Talking about his journey so far, he said, “My parents and grandparents were into music and dance, but it was not on a professional level. My uncle Hiroshi was a saxophone player and died just about a year before I was born. Maybe, it’s his legacy that runs in my blood.

“I have met many wonderful musicians from India — Gino Banks, Dhruv Ghanekar, Sheldon D’Silva and Tala Faral (who is now settled in Indonesia) at the Borneo Jazz Festival in Malaysia. Since then, I have been collaborating with Indian musicians. I have also recorded an album for Louis Banks in Mumbai. My new project is ‘RALYZZ DIG’ which literally means ‘to dig into jazz that sends out hot ray and touches the heart with lyrics’. Recently, we had an all Japanese band performing in Bengaluru and I collaborated with musicians Aman Mahajan, Jeoraj Stanly George and Avishek Dey,” he said.

“India is a land of diverse culture, religion, language and music. The structures in Indian music are detailed and delicate, which touch my heart. Very small portions of the performances are written and there is a lot of improvisation. Some of the melodies are set to rhythms which make you fly into another world.”