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Motohiko Hamase Biography

Motohiko Hamase (1952-) Quit Keio University. Since 1976, he has been playing with Jazz groups of such leaders as Hidehumi Toki, Isao Suzuki, Mikio Masuda, Kazumasa Akiyama, Yasuaki Shimizu and George Ohtsuka. He has joined many recordings as acoustic and electric bassist. As a player he established a new style using fretless bass. He formed an experimental unit "Lager" in 1982 and continued grouping for new format of music until 1985, when he began his solo activities and released five solo albums.

 

In recent years, since 2008, he has formed a unit called "Motohiko Hamase E.L.F Ensemble", which recreates his own music in a new way, and has been performing live.

 

In 2018, in response to the needs of the European music market, he released new recordings "INTAGLIO" and "REMINISCENCE" on CD and vinyl from Studio Mule label.

 

In 2020, he re-released "Notes of Forestry", "Anecdote" and "Technodrome" on CD and vinyl from Wrwtfww Records label in Switzerland.

 

In September 2020, he was invited to perform solo at the PRHYTHM "Circle of Friends" Secret Autumn Equinox Sound Ceremony.

 

As of 2021, he is preparing for a new style of concert, where he will express his music through a fusion of digital and live music.

 

He established a theory on bass line in the "Bass Line Book "(1987), a book which concerns musical theory. He also presented a completely new tonality theory for improvisations and composition by establishing a theory concerning the development of blue notes in "Blue notes and Tonality"(1992). In his book "Syntax in the musical language of Charlie Parker : the structural analysis of the improvisations" (2013), he provides an unprecedented structural analysis of Charlie Parker's improvisational musical language from the standpoint of a performer, based on data from over 600 musical scores and studies conducted over a long period of time.