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Tomoyasu Ikuta

About Me

Tomoyasu Ikuta He is from Kagawa prefecture in Japan.When he was young,he belonged to a baseball team.His position was first base.So most of the time,he spent his time playing baseball back then. But when he was 15,one of his friend influenced him,so he started to listen to music . At first,he was listening to J-POP,J-ROCK.But after he listened to Led Zeppelin,he was really inspired by them.He started to listen to various music,such as Jimi Hendrix,Eric Clapton,Cream,King Crimson etc... After he entered high-school,he started to listen to drummers,such as Takashi Kashikura(then Reach,now Toe),John Bonham,Mitch Mitchell,Chad Smith etc...Then,they motivated him to start playing drums.Later,his curiousity became bigger and bigger.When he was 18,he started to listen to Jazz,Fusion and Funk.At the same time,he was inspired by Jazz and Fusion Drummers,such as Art Blakey,Max Roach,Steve Gadd and Dave Weckl.He wanted to play Jazz,but there were few Jazz bands there.so it was hard to find them.But he tried to search it.Finally he found out few jam sessions.Whenever he had chance,he went there to listen to Jazz. After he graduated at the high-school,his curioucity and ambition reached to peak.Despite he graduated at the tecnical high-school which was electrical,He decided to move to New York. After he moved to New York,he studied various music at the Drummers Collective.He learned Jazz and fusion from Ian Froman,Peter Retzlaff,Kim Plainfield and Yoichi Sato. Every thing he learned was all new things,beside he knew that as a drummer,he had to do a lot of things.He said”All his teachers were really respectful in terms of music.So it was not only about playing music,he learned how to organize,how to work with the other musicians which was really basic”. After he graduated at the Drummers collective,he met Taylor Jones who is great guitar player and gentle man.Later he achieved on his recording.And he tried to play with a lot of Jazz musicians.Since then his curioucity has been expanding.He's been playing hip-hop,Rock and several music.Beyond the genres,he's been developing his skills. Recently,he's embarked new challenge of composing his own music.He's been so excited to improve himself.He thankfully said”All his friends supported him,that's why he could do this” He is always thanksful for all music,musicians,his friends,his family and all opportunities. He is going to continue to develop himself...