Originally hailing from Ichikawa, Japan, Jazz Guitarist, Hajime Yoshida is one of the most sophisticated guitarists, accompanists and composers in New York City.
Hajime was fascinated by music at a very young age; he had been taking violin lessons from local professionals and had chances to perform recitals before he started playing guitar. Started playing guitar at the age of 14, then a year later, he started taking lessons from professional guitar players in Tokyo area. Hajime also started his career as a composer at the same time, and it did not take much time for him to start playing original compositions at venues with his band.
Hajime’s strong passion to music and interest to new sounds led him to United States when he was 18. He started his bachelor’s degree in Jazz Performance at the University of North Texas in 2003; while he was studying at the school, he had met his guitar instructor and also a mentor, Fred Hamilton. He also performed with 3 O’Clock Lab Bad directed by Jay Saunders while he was in the school. Hajime started to be one of the sought-after guitarists in Denton/ Dallas/ Ft. Worth area music scene when he completed his bachelor’s.
In 2009, Hajime relocated to New York, sooner or later, he started playing in venues in the city as a bandleader and sideman. He also has completed his master’s degree in jazz performance at Queens College in 2011. In May 2012, he recorded his debut CD, “Unlimitation” under his credit with Sylvester Onyejiaka on sax, Yuka Tadano on bass and Keita Ogawa on drums, released from Armored Records.
As a sideman, Hajime has joined a recording session of Prince sideman Sylvester Onyejiaka (Sly5thave)’s debut CD, “Akuma” released in 2014 from Truth Revolution Records. In this recording session he also had a fortunate to play with members from Grammy Winning band, Snarky Puppy including Jay Jennings, Cory Henry, and Keita Ogawa. He also has performed with Evan Weiss (Funky Knuckles) and Shelley Carroll (Duke Ellington Orchestra) while he was on tour in 2012, performance venue including House of Blues, TX.
Hajime is a band member of the band, CuE, formed by Hajime Yoshida (g), Yoshiki Yamada (b) and Hironori Momoi (ds). The guitar trio has been exploring possibilities of improvisational music in the style of mixing Rock and Jazz. CuE released their debut CD, “CuE” from Onaka Cube Music in 2013. The band has toured Japan in 2013 and 2014, performed at venues in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.
Hajime was selected as a finalist at Sharon Lynne Wilson Center Jazz Guitar Competition in 2015, Wisconsin.