JAZZPROFILES lives in the music 1,765 Jazz Artists fully Profiled!
Profile No. JA-140

Satoshi Takeishi

Drums, Percussion — Japanese — B: February 6, 1962, Mito, Japan

Last updated October 21, 2026

Listen on Spotify
Satoshi Takeishi

Satoshi Takeishi at the drums, 1 April 2011 (cropped from the original frame). CC BY 2.0 — https://www.flickr.com/photos/11316976@N00/5736890553

Satoshi Takeishi (武石聡, Takeishi Satoshi in Japanese order) was born on 6 February 1962 in Mito, Japan. He is a drummer and percussionist who has spent most of his working life outside Japan: at Berklee College of Music in Boston, then in Colombia, then in Miami, and since 1991 in New York, where he has played with some of the city's most adventurous improvisers. His brother, the electric bassist Stomu Takeishi, was also born in Mito, and the two have shared bandstands and recording sessions.

At Berklee his interest in South American music took hold, and after leaving Boston he went to Colombia at a friend's invitation and stayed about four years. There he worked with the composer and arranger Francisco Zumaque on a project called Macumbia, which mixed traditional music, jazz and classical writing and was performed with the Bogota symphony orchestra in concerts honouring the Colombian composer Lucho Bermudez. Zumaque's records Macumbia (Discos Fonosema, 1984) and Colombia Caribe (Discos Fonosema, 1985) list him on drums and as a credited appearance respectively. He returned to the United States in 1986 and settled in Miami, where he began working as an arranger and is credited as a producer on the flutist Nestor Torres's album Morning Ride. He also studied Middle Eastern music with the Armenian-American oud player Joe Zeytoonian.

In 1991 he moved to New York. His first major association there was with the conga player and bandleader Ray Barretto, whose New World Spirit band he joined for Ancestral Messages (1993) and Taboo (1994). Over the next decade he became a regular in the city's improvised-music and new-jazz circles. In 1997 he is on the Patrick Zimmerli Ensemble's Explosion (Songlines) and the pianist Eliane Elias's The Three Americas. In 1997 the cellist Erik Friedlander formed the quartet Topaz with the saxophonist Andy Laster, Takeishi on percussion and his brother Stomu on electric bass; the group made four albums, Topaz (1998), Skin (2000), Quake (2003) and Prowl (2006). In 1998 he also appears on percussion and taiko on guitarist Kenny Wessel's leader debut Daybreak (Igmod), a jazz and Hindustani trio date with the tabla player Badal Roy and Stomu Takeishi.

The 2000s widened the field. Aguacero (2001) and Aguacero Two (2007), for the pianist Tino Derado, put him in a quintet with the saxophonist Billy Drewes, the bassist Ben Street and the percussionist Jamey Haddad. In 2003 the ECM label released Vindonissa, a three-way billing with the violinist Paul Giger and the flutist Robert Dick. He made Sounds (2007) and Live at Firehouse 12 (2009) with the Rob Brown Trio, played in Michaël Attias's quartet Renku, played on the singer Theo Bleckmann and guitarist Ben Monder's At Night (Songlines, 2007) on drums, percussion and laptop, and is credited on Hans Tammen's Third Eye Orchestra (Innova, 2008). He is credited on Anthony Braxton's Quintet (London) 2004 (Leo Records, 2005), recorded at the Royal Festival Hall. His biographies also list work with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band and with Paul Winter's Consort; the Paul Winter Consort albums Silver Solstice (2005) and Everybody Under the Sun (2019) carry his name.

A second thread has run alongside the drumming in recent years: composed and processed electronic music. He released a solo electronics triptych on the Danish label clang: Dew Drops (2016, clang040), Premonition (2017, clang050) and Fragments (2018), the last built from improvisations on cheap instruments and gadgets and shaped by the memory of old cassette recordings he had kept. In the same years he recorded with his wife, the pianist and accordionist Shoko Nagai (永井晶子), in the duo Vortex, which marked its twentieth anniversary in 2022, and with her, the singer Maryanne de Prophetis and the trumpeter Ron Horton in FIDOqrtet. A 2025 release, Forbidden Flowers, by Shoko Nagai's group of that name credits him as producer.

His recent credits include the saxophonist Joshua Redman's Sun on Sand (Nonesuch, 2019), made with the string quartet Brooklyn Rider and the composer Patrick Zimmerli, on which he plays drums beside Joshua Redman and the bassist Scott Colley; Zimmerli's Book of Dreams (Newvelle, 2020); Ben Monder's Planetarium (Sunnyside, 2024); and Marty Ehrlich's Cartographies of Flight (2026). He also returns to Japan: a listing of live dates shows him in October 2018 and again in October 2019 playing duo concerts called The Gate with the pianist Eishin Nose (野瀬栄進), whose album Inside Out Dream (AC Music, 2009) he plays on. He lives in New York and is, at 64, still working.

Takeishi plays drum kit and a wide percussion setup, and the records show how far he moves between roles. On Friedlander's Topaz albums and the Rob Brown Trio's Sounds he is a percussionist in small, open groups. On Wessel's Daybreak he plays taiko and hand percussion in a jazz and Hindustani setting. His Colombian years and his Barretto period give him a Latin and Caribbean grounding, and his study with Joe Zeytoonian adds Middle Eastern rhythm to the mix. The credit trail also runs through contemporary classical writing: Vindonissa on ECM, the cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper's Stone and Steel (2008), on which he is also credited as an arranger, and her Around the World with Love (2017).

His solo work shows an interest in real-time electronic processing of acoustic sounds. In his own notes for Dew Drops he describes starting from live percussion and electronics, using only one or two acoustic instruments per section; the later Fragments uses low-bit sampling and toy keyboards to evoke the memory of old tapes. Those records sit at the edge of jazz, in electronic and experimental music. Almost everything else he has recorded is jazz or improvised music, from Braxton and Friedlander to Redman, and he is best understood as a jazz and improvised-music drummer who also makes electronic music.

Key Recordings
Full Discography

Satoshi Takeishi (武石聡) - Full Discography

Japanese drummer, percussionist and arranger. Born 6 February 1962, Mito. Discogs artist 442664.

Name variations on record: Satoshi Takeishi, Santoshi Takeishi, Satoshi, Takeishi, Takeisi Satoshi, 武石聡, 武石さとし.

Group affiliations: Rob Brown Trio, Topaz, The Winter Consort, Ray Barretto and New World Spirit, Hans Tammen's Third Eye Orchestra, FIDOqrtet, Vortex (duo with Shoko Nagai), The Gate (duo with Eishin Nose), Black Phebe, Anthony Coleman Quartet, Rez Abbasi Trio, Gordon Grdina Quartet, Patrick Zimmerli Ensemble, Michael Musillami Octet, Renku.

Buy links are plain Amazon search links.

Leader (solo and own-name releases)

Album Year Label Personnel Notes Listen Buy
Dew Drops 2016 clang, clang040 Satoshi Takeishi (percussion, electronics) Four tracks: "Primus", "Secundo Motum", "Tertius Motus", "Quattour Elementa". Developed as a live percussion and electronics piece in November 2015. Digital release, 27 May 2016; mastered by Lars Graugaard. Spotify · Bandcamp Amazon
Premonition 2017 clang, clang050 Satoshi Takeishi Eight tracks, from "Prologue" to "Epilogue". Digital release, 31 March 2017. Second of the electronics triptych. Bandcamp not found
Fragments 2018 clang, clang063 Satoshi Takeishi (composer, performer, recording, artwork) Ten tracks, from "Corrugated Realm" to "Fragment II". Digital release, 26 October 2018. Conclusion of the triptych. Spotify · Bandcamp Amazon

Co-leader (trios, quartets and group releases billed jointly)

Album Year Label Co-billed with Notes Listen Buy
Aguacero 2001 PERUNRecords Tino Derado (piano), Billy Drewes (saxophone, flute), Ben Street (bass), Jamey Haddad (percussion); Takeishi on drums Nine tracks, from "Aguacero" to "Symbiosis". not found Amazon
So Glad To Be Here 2003 Ambient Records, CD-003 Leslie Pintchik (piano), Scott Hardy (bass); Takeishi on percussion Eleven tracks, SACD, including "All The Things You Are". Billed as Leslie Pintchik featuring Scott Hardy and Satoshi Takeishi. not found Amazon
Vindonissa 2003 ECM, ECM 1836 Paul Giger, Robert Dick Eleven tracks. Credited music by all three players. Recorded 1995 to 2000, edited at Big Ear Studio, Dubendorf; released 14 April 2003. Spotify Amazon
Aguacero Two 2007 PERUNRecords Tino Derado, Billy Drewes, Ben Street, Jamey Haddad; Takeishi on drums Nine tracks, from "Papillon" to "Tino Tinto". not found Amazon
Stone And Steel 2008 Linus Entertainment, 2 70103 Kristina Reiko Cooper (cello), John Novacek (piano) Ten tracks. Takeishi on percussion and credited as arranger of "Dido's Lament Electronic". Spotify Amazon
Say Hello To Anyone I Know 2014 Fast Speaking Music Daniel Carter (reeds, trumpet), Daniel Levin (cello), Devin Brahja Waldman (alto saxophone); Takeishi on drums and percussion Five tracks: "Anselm Hollo", "Mr. Byrd", "The Mayor", "Jayne Cortez", "Butch". not found Amazon
Rarefactions 2015 Neuma Records, 450-113 Jane Rigler (flute, electronics), Janet Feder (guitar, banjo), Shoko Nagai (piano, accordion, keyboards) Ten tracks. Takeishi on percussion and electronics. not found Amazon
Tell A Star 2016 ENNA Records, ENNA 0010 Maryanne de Prophetis (voice), Ron Horton (trumpet), Frank Kimbrough (piano); Takeishi on drums and percussion Nine tracks. Recorded 28 August 2015 at Samurai Hotel, New York. Spotify Amazon
Around The World With Love 2017 Roven Records, RR 10115 Kristina Reiko Cooper (cello), Or Matias (piano); Takeishi on percussion Fourteen tracks of songs from around the world, including "Yoimachigusa (Evening Primrose)" from Japan. not found Amazon
FIDOqrtet 2020 ENNA Records Shoko Nagai, Maryanne De Prophetis, Ron Horton Eleven tracks, recorded 2015 to 2016 at IBeam, Brooklyn. Takeishi performer, engineer and mixer. not found not found

Guest and sideman releases (selected)

Album Year Leader Label Takeishi's credit Listen Buy
Ancestral Messages 1993 Ray Barretto and New World Spirit not listed credited appearance not found Amazon
Taboo 1994 Ray Barretto and New World Spirit not listed credited appearance not found Amazon
Topaz 1998 Erik Friedlander Siam Records percussion Spotify Amazon
Daybreak 1998 Badal Roy, Kenny Wessel, Stomu Takeishi Igmod percussion, taiko (tracks 1, 3 to 7) not found Amazon
Quake 2003 Erik Friedlander Cryptogramophone percussion Spotify Amazon
Hot Hands 2003 Ray Barretto and New World Spirit not listed credited appearance not found Amazon
Quintet (London) 2004 (Live At The Royal Festival Hall) 2005 Anthony Braxton Leo Records percussion not found Amazon
Sounds 2007 Rob Brown Trio Clean Feed percussion Spotify Amazon
At Night 2007 Theo Bleckmann, Ben Monder Songlines Recordings drums, percussion, laptop (tracks 2, 3, 6, 9, 10) not found Amazon
Third Eye Orchestra 2008 Hans Tammen Innova Recordings percussion not found Amazon
Renku In Coimbra 2009 Michaël Attias Clean Feed drums, percussion not found Amazon
Live At Firehouse 12 2009 The Rob Brown Trio Not Two Records percussion not found Amazon
Inside Out Dream 2009 Eishin Nose AC Music drums, percussion (tracks 1, 3 to 5, 8 to 10) not found not found
Sun On Sand 2019 Joshua Redman, Brooklyn Rider, Patrick Zimmerli Nonesuch drums Spotify Amazon
Book Of Dreams 2020 Patrick Zimmerli Newvelle Records drums not found not found
Cartographies of Flight "Lines Set Afloat Towards Hope" 2026 Marty Ehrlich Corbett vs. Dempsey percussion, drums not found not found

Other credited appearances

Chronological list of the remaining credited appearances, compilations and production credits.

Sources

Personnel & Collaborations
Linked Profiles
Erik Friedlander
Erik Friedlander
View profile →
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
View profile →
Joshua Redman
Joshua Redman
View profile →
Kenny Wessel
View profile →
Billy Drewes
View profile →
Ben Street
Ben Street
View profile →
More Like This

More Avant-Garde Jazz Artists

Savannah HarrisDrumsScott RobinsonSaxophones (soprano to contrabass, plus C-melody)Sebi TramontanaTromboneSergio ArmaroliVibraphoneShanir Ezra BlumenkranzElectric and acoustic bassShay HazanDouble bass
See all 379 Avant-Garde Jazz artists →

More Japanese Jazz Artists

Shigeharu MukaiTromboneShigeko SuzukiVocalsShigeko ToyaVocalsShigemichi DomotoTromboneShigenori KamiyaElectric guitarShinji MoriDrums
See all 262 Japanese artists →
Links & Sources