Shiro Sadamura PROFILE
Shiro Sadamura was born in Tokyo, Japan, and took his classical violin
lesson with Hironaka Matsui at SUZUKI METHOD at age 7. He studied Jazz
Violin with Matt Glaser at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1984
through 1986, and was recipient of "The 1985 Joe Venuti Award." He moved to
New York City in 1987 to enroll in City College of NY and at the same time,
studied privately with Ron Carter for two years. He also studied with Yoko
Takebe, who is currently the concertmaster of New York Philharmonic. Shiro
was also awarded the honorable "Seymour Peck Scholorship in the Arts" and
"Pro Musica Award" at City College.
In 1988, Shiro joined 7-time Grammy Award Winner, The Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Ensemble, and performed at the 1989 Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the 1990 JVC Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall, and recorded the album "SUENO", which was nominated for the 1990 Grammy Award. He actively worked with Eddie at clubs in NYC such as Blue Note, SOB's, Bottom Line, Village Gate and toured through the US and Europe until 1990.
Shiro is now leading his own group called UPLINKERS, a contemporary Jazz Funk project that debuted in New York City in July 1995, and has continuously performed at NY clubs such as The BLUENOTE, NELLS, IZZY BAR, NEO - LOUNGE, La Place on the Park.
Shiro has released his first CD "METAMORPHOSIS" from Japanese label MUSIC-CAMP in the spring 2005. The album is constructed with a well mixture of some tracks from The Uplinkers and some duo performances with Eddie Palmieri, Ron Carter, and Matt Glaser.
THE UPLINKERS
The band was originally composed of Shiro, an Afro-Cuban percussionist, a
Brazilian percussionist, a funk drummer, a bassist and a guitar player.
This unusual configuration well represents Shiro's unique concept and his
heavy emphasis on rhythm in his music. He is not satisfied with jazz's
traditional rhythm pattern and seeks a new genre of music for the 21th
century.
What influences Uplinkers above all else is contemporary jazz of 1970s, which was called Jazz Rock or Cross Over before the name, Fusion, became dominant. In those days, various musical experiments were done by artists such as Miles Davis, Brecker Brothers and Weather Reports. One of the central concepts of Uplinkers is to go back to these experimental music and try to see where it will reach now. It does not simply mean to retrospect music of the '70s, but attempt to develop and deepen it.
UPLINKERS does not usually play any standards or already formatted tunes. A tune is created, moment by moment, with all members bringing forth improvisation. They do not discuss who takes solos when, prior to their gigs. Their music is free to go anywhere the members would like to take it at that moment.
It imperative that each member has creativity, flexibility and the ability to take initiative when it is appropriate. Blessed with having a selective rhythm section that can realize this, their stage performance is always flowing with intensity and always totally original. It is a perfect marriage of musical experimentation and artistic expression.
UPLINKERS has been united by various of musicians from different jenre : KIRK DOUGLAS (El.G), GBATOKAI DAKINAH (El.B), VIC BAROCAS (Drums) ETIENNE STADWIJK (Kb) TIM LEFEBVRE (El.B) VIC BAROCAS (Ds) THIERRY ARPINO (Ds) MILTON CARDONA(Congas), KENJI HINO(El.B) VALTINHO ANASTACIO(Perc), JOAQUIN LIEVANO (El.G) ......to name a few.
