Meet Daisuke Konno

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daisuke Konno. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daisuke below.

Hi Daisuke , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

The most important thing for me when playing music is to always improvise in a natural state because I think that’s the best way to entertain the audience and communicate with them intimately. In order to perform in a way that satisfies the audience, I need to build good relationships with each band member, and in order to do that, I need to understand the feelings and thoughts of the people around me. To do that, I also try to keep myself in good physical and mental health. In other words, I think it’s important to always enjoy life and not be stressed.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I started playing drums at age 15, jazz at age 18, and worked as a professional musician in Japan until I was 35. I decided that in order to truly enrich my career, I had to work in the home of jazz, so I moved to New York in 2013. Since then, I have been performing with musicians from all over the world in a variety of settings, including jazz clubs, concert halls, restaurants, bars, and parks. I mainly play bebop and contemporary jazz with small groups, but I also play American pop, country songs, Japanese pop, and any other type of music requested. I always enjoy playing high quality improvisations with great friends, but I especially enjoy the Bruce Edwards(guitar) Trio, the group with whom I’ve been playing for the longest time, as they are the group that best represents New York jazz.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think the most important quality for a performer is to always maintain one’s own style, and the skills required are to keep time, rhythm, and tone at their best. I believe that jazz performers in particular need to know as many pieces as possible in detail.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

I don’t read any particular books, but I mostly read books about history. I think that there is a lot to learn as an artist by learning about human activities throughout the ages.

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