An Economics Graduate from Kyoto Who Crossed to Berklee, Won an Eddie Gomez Award Twice, and Became Sadao Watanabe's Bassist

Koichi Osamu (納浩一) was born on October 24, 1960, in Osaka Prefecture. His route to the double bass was roundabout: piano lessons from the age of three, guitar at 13, electric bass a year later, and the upright at 19. He then took an economics degree at Kyoto University (1984) before heading to Boston, where he studied composition and arrangement at Berklee College of Music from late 1984 to 1987 and received the school's Eddie Gomez Award in both 1985 and 1986. Back in Japan from 1988, he became a regular bassist in Sadao Watanabe's group, which took him to the Montreux Jazz Festival among other stages, and he has led his own projects, including the duo series DuoRama (1999, 2009, 2015). He has also written a shelf of instructional books and DVDs on jazz bass. Some details here rest chiefly on his Japanese Wikipedia page, which carries a no-citations warning, so treat the finer points accordingly.