Yōsuke Yamashita (山下 洋輔) (February 26, 1942) is a Japanese jazz pianist, composer and writer. His piano style is influenced by free jazz, modal jazz and soul jazz. Since the late 1980s, Yamashita's main performing group has consisted of Cecil McBee (bass), Pheeroan akLaff (drums), and often Joe Lovano (saxophone). Yamashita first played piano professionally in 1959, at the age of 17, and attended the Kunitachi College of Music and studied classical composition from 1962 to 1967. Read more on Last.fm