TATSURO YAMASHITA

Tatsuro Yamashita is considered to be one of the representative musicians of Japanese New Music, City Pop. The urban musicality of his work generated followers of later Japanese music artists.

Tatsuro Yamashita was influenced by many musicians of American pop rock like Brian Wilson and Beach Boys. Also, he is one of the enthusiastic fans of Do-Wop in Japan, and also has abundant knowledge. It is also known by using the technique of “one person acapella” which overwrites its own vocal. He is also a fan of Soft Rock, Blue-Eyed Soul, Chorus Group, Sweet Soul, and others. Also, he is a fan of James Brown and garage rock. Tatsuro Yamashita and Kenta Hagiwara are representative of beach boys fans in Japan.

From the particulars of music making and original production attitude, it is also called “Sound Craftsman”. In addition to vocals and backing chorus, he does recording works by all himself from arranging to guitar, driving computer, synthesizer, percussion. There are also songs that perform all the performances by himself. He is particularly good at rhythm cutting of guitar. It has a strong style of acoustic feeling, but because of the policy to utilize the latest technology, he has a wide range of know-how covering from analog to digital.

He formed Sugar Babe with Taeko Onuki and made her debut in the album “SONGS” (1975). On Niagara label of producer Otaki Eiichi, he participated in the work of Nippon Columbia era as chorus and strings arrangement. Especially deeply involved in Otaki’s solo album “NIAGARA MOON” (1975) and “NIAGARA CALENDAR” (1977). In addition to his own work, he began offering music to other singers and musicians from about 1975. There is also a connection with Johnny & Associates through Ryuzo Kosugi. He made Masahiko Kondo’s “High Teen Boogie” (1982), KinKi Kids’ debut single “Glass Boys” (1997) and “Rollercoaster Romance” (1998) and other hit songs, as well as many thematic songs of talents Johnny & Associates.

Like Otaki, he is vinyl record · CD collector, audio mania. Especially he knows about rock · R & B · pops, the total number of his collections of analog records exceeds 60,000 with mainly the original version.