Hitoshi Fukutomi
Biography
Born in Osaka, Japan, he began teaching himself to play guitar at the age of 14, playing rock, pop, etc. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the Koyo Music Academy, where he was exposed to a variety of music, mainly jazz. While still in school, he formed his own group and began performing mainly original music. Later, he decided to study at Berklee College of Music. After passing the scholarship exam, he studied at Berklee College of Music in the fall of 2004. While at Berklee, he participated in various concerts and recordings and received the Guitar Department Achievement Award in 2006.
ギHe studied guitar with Jon Damian, Bret Willmott, and Bruce Saunders, improvisation with Hal Crook and Dave Santro, and ensemble with Joe Lovano and George Gazone. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, he studied chord work with Ben Monder.
He returned to Japan in August 2007 and has been active with his own group and others, mainly in the Tokyo area. In January 2010, he released a lead album, “Rings of Saturn”.
Video(s)
Gear
… how did it all start?
At the time I was looking for a new guitar, I was looking for a semi-acoustic guitar with a thick neck. Another point in my search was that I wanted a guitar with a slightly stronger acoustic sound than a Gibson 335, so I had other candidates for a semi-acoustic with a fat neck, but I chose a Seventy-Seven semi-acoustic that I felt still had an acoustic sound when connected to an amplifier. The reason why I felt the acoustic sound so strongly may have come from the construction and the way it was made, or perhaps the fact that it is a spruce top had something to do with it. Either way, I like the fact that there are parts of the electric sound that feel acoustic. Basically, I use it for most of my regular jazz gigs. I recorded “On The Far Side” by Afuriko, an album by Mitsuru Hirayama, a saxophonist, which will be released within this year, and I used this guitar to record my second album at the end of 2013.
Africo youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0WBIfY5F5A