Born in the Akita prefecture of Japan in 1974. Yosuke’s father was an influence in his beginning guitar at age 14. After playing clubs with rock bands, a friend introduced him to the music of the likes George Benson, Donnie Hathaway, and Grant Green. He was deeply impressed and decided to devote himself to studying jazz guitar. In 1995, he took 3rd place as the Japanese representative in the Heritage Jazz Guitar Competition, and in 1999 won the Gibson Jazz Guitar Contest. Yosuke then focused mainly on playing jazz in clubs. His debut album nu jazz was released in November 2001 to wide-ranging praise for his assured technique, fresh sensibility and sophisticated compositions. Yosuke began to get offers for collaboration from artists in a wide range of genres, including from R&B duo Chemistry as well as Hip-Hop group Rhymester and other J-Pop artists. While realizing these, he has also continued to release his own recordings, including his 2nd album Summer Madness (2002), and Jazz 'n' Pop (2003). The Three Primary Colors (2004), gained additional attention, as Yosuke was joined on the recording by virtuoso bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Richard Bona. Yosuke's most recent album entitled Beautiful Day was released in 2007. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Yosuke+Onuma">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.