Yamaguchi grew up in Tokyo, Japan and decided to study in the U.S. at the age of 26. He became the first Japanese person to complete the master's program in Jazz Performance atCity College of New York (M.A. 1999). He has written forDown Beat magazine andAnnual Review of Jazz Studies, which is peer reviewed and published by theInstitute of Jazz Studies atRutgers University.[1][2][3]
According to his profile inMarquis Who's Who in America, Yamaguchi has been a musician and educator who established his conceptual system to explore the imaginative formation of musical scales inThe Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales.[4] His representative work,The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales was reviewed by John Kuzmich (senior columnist ofJazz Education Journal,International Association for Jazz Education) as "It's worth mentioning that this book comprehensively covers all theoretical possibilities in constructing scales...Take this Thesaurus Scales seriously, you will not be disappointed in the options available for jazz improvisation."[5] "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" (which takesOlivier Messiaen'sModes of limited transposition and updates it) and "Appendix: Scales for Jazz Improvisation" inThe Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales are very helpful to organize musician's mind and ear. "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" was introduced inThe Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales,[6] "Symmetrical Scales for Jazz Improvisation"[7] and his academic article, "A Creative Approach to Multi-Tonic Changes: Beyond Coltrane's Harmonic Formula (Annual Review of Jazz Studies 12, 2002)."[8] The concept of "The Subsets of Limited Transposition" has been updated by the "Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz Improvisation" as "Systematized The Subsets of Limited Transposition Families." Chapter VI of "Lexicon of Geometric Patterns for Jazz Improvisation" is also given to "Messiaen's Modes for Jazz Improvisation"[9]
Masaya Yamaguchi is also known as a scholar and researcher of the music ofCharlie Parker andJohn Coltrane. David Damsey is a co-author ofJohn Coltrane Plays Coltrane Changes[10] and a professor of music and coordinator of jazz studies atWilliam Paterson University.
