Biography
Yosuke Sato was born in Tokyo, Japan. He began to play jazz guitar in high school and switched to the trumpet at university. After graduation, he began to play alto saxophone and several years later started to perform as a profesional musician based in Sapporo, Hokkaido province, Japan.
Yosuke moved to New York in 2008, and soon after was admitted by trumpetter Melvin Vines in his band, Harlem Jazz Machine as a saxophonist. The band played at the famous St. Nic's Pub, a historical jazz club in New York City, until the place was closed. Introduced by Melvin, he got a chance to meet Gregory Porter, and became part of the Gregory Porter Quintet. The band started perfoming every week at Smoke, one of the most popular jazz clubs in Manhattan. They eventually embarked on a world tour. Gregory's second album Be Good was nominated for a Grammy, and his third album, Liquid Spirit won "Best Jazz Vocal Album of the year" in 2014.
After Sato left the band, Gregory's 4th album, Take me to the Alley, (in which Sato played) won the Grammy's same category in 2016, which gave Sato another Grammy award. Sato played in all of these albums, as the lead alto saxophone player and had been touring with the quintet, attending many jazz festivals all over the world, until he left the band to focus on his own music project at the end of 2015.
He moved back to Japan and now is based there, working on his music, as a saxophonist, flutist, clarinettist, singer, composer, arranger, and teacher.
