| Biography | Stomu Yamashta, born Tsutomu Yamashita (March 1947) is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is best known for pioneering and popularising the world music genre after blending traditional music with popular music in the 1960s and 1970s. He retired from music shortly after to become a monk.
Stomu Yamashta was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied music at Kyoto University, Juilliard School of Music, and Berklee College of Music, and has also lectured in music. His innovation and acrobatic drumming style earned him many accolades. In the 1960s he performed with Thor Johnson, Toru Takemitsu, and Hans Werner Henze amongst others. He changed his name from Tsutomu Yamashita to the phonetic Stomu Yamashta and in 1969 gained worldwide recognition during a concert with Seiji Ozawa and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Time Magazine reviewed the concert declaring the star of the evening was Stomu Yamashta who stole the show with his breathtaking virtuosic performance, and when it was over the audience gave him a five minute standing ovation.
At the turn of the 1970s he worked with Peter Maxwell Davies and brought the Red Buddha Theatre company from Japan to Europe, acting as their director, producer and composer, writing and performing in the multi-media event "The Man From The East", with Morris Pert's Come To The Edge providing the musical backing.
He was the leader of the supergroup Go with Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola, Klaus Schulze, and Michael Shrieve. He has composed for the British Royal Ballet, and wrote pieces for the David Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth and performed in Peter Maxwell Davies's score for Ken Russell's The Devils and in John Williams' score for Robert Altman's Images (1972). He has also composed film scores . His Space Theme was used by the BBC on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. |