[Brief Bio]
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Yutaka started playing drums when he was 16, and studied with Norihiko Nara.
He came to the U.S. in '96, majored in Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music and graduated in '99. While studying at Berklee, he received the Louie Bellson Award for his outstanding performance.
He lives in New York now and pursuing his career as a professional drummer/composer/arranger. Currently Yutaka is appearing at Cleopatra's Needle, a long standing jazz club on the Upper Westside, every Sunday evening. He has also been involved with many other bands/projects, including Mascot's Distance, Anti-Elevator Mission, as well as his own project, Planet Music.

For the full version, look below.

Drummer/Composer/Arranger Yutaka Uchida was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1973. Yutaka had already shown his passion towards music when he was only 3 years old. He learned the basics of music and trained his ears through violin and piano lessons in his early years.

His musical experience started with listening to his parents' record collection, which included a lot of classical music, some folk and jazz music, movie soundtracks and all kinds of Japanese music (from traditional to pop). When he was 6 years old, his family moved to Mexico, where he was exposed to a lot of Mexican traditional music as well as American/British pop music. His favorite pop star was (still is) Billy Joel and he kept collecting Billy's albums throughout his student years. And it was Billy's drummer, great Liberty Devitto, who drew Yutaka's attention to the world of drumming for the first time. It forever changed his life.

He started playing drums when he was 16 and took intensive lessons with Norihiko Nara for a few years. During the highschool years, he was heavily into hard rock, heavy metal and progressive rock from 70's and 80's. When he joined New Swingin' Herd of Rikkyo University, he encountered jazz, particularly big band music. Although he had already covered a wide variety of styles from classical to pop to any kind of rock by then, it was jazz that profoundly broadened his musicality and facility on the drums. Four years of experience in the big band also made his reading skill impeccable. He rapidly absorbed all the styles from swing jazz to contemporary fusion and became the concert master of the band in 1994. Also it was around then that he decided to make music his career and started playing at clubs and bars in Tokyo.

He came to the United States in 1996, to study jazz composition and arrangement at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He studied with many acclaimed composers, such as Ken Pullig, Dick Lowell, Ted Pease and Steve Rochinski. He enthusiastically learned all the materials for writing, and was awarded the Berklee Achievement Scholarship in 1998 and 1999. Meanwhile, he kept playing drums both in and out of school, and received The First Annual Louie Bellson Award (established by Avedis Zildjian Co.) in 1999, in recognition of his outstanding performance. Drum teachers with whom he studied at Berklee include Kenwood Dennard, Rod Morgenstein and Bob Tamagni. He also experienced a Japan tour with jazz guitarist Tatsu Kisaragi (P.J.L. Records/Japan) during his college years.

Yutaka now resides in Staten Island, New York, and is actively pursuing his career as a musician. His weekly appearance at Cleopatra's Needle, a long standing jazz club on the Upper Westside, is now widely recognized. His strong yet sensitive technique, versatility and musicality has been appreciated by many musicians from different fields. Yutaka is currently working with pop group Mascot's Distance, bassist Danny Zanker's Anti-Elevator Mission, jazz pianist Eishin Nose and many others. Yutaka is also running his own band PLANET MUSIC for his original compositions and having occasional gigs at clubs in local NYC area.