Bio

Yuma Uesaka (b.1991) is a Japanese-American saxophonist, clarinetist, improviser, and composer based in New York City since 2014. By way of London, Nagoya, and Detroit, his practice spans jazz, creative improvised music, and new music, shaped by a commitment to experimentation alongside an ongoing engagement with their histories. Yuma works with the physicality of performance and material conditions of sound, using extended techniques, instrumental augmentation, and compositional practice to expand how performers and instruments operate within a musical context. His work moves between improvisation and composition, acoustic and electronic environments, and along the edge between music and noise.

Collaboration is central to Yuma’s musical practice. His work spans a range of contexts, from the intimate duo with NEA Jazz Master pianist Marilyn Crispell on Streams, described by WBGO as “packed with unexpected details and aglow with shared intuition,” to co-led improvising chamber ensembles such as Ocelot and Tropos, both recipients of Chamber Music America’s Ensemble Forward Grant, leading to albums developed under the mentorship of Wadada Leo Smith and Darius Jones, respectively. His duo with multi-reedist David Leon (Thumbs) centers on the juxtaposition of rigor and absurdity, while his duo with laptop artist Simon Kanzler focuses on the interaction between extended woodwind timbres and real-time digital signal processing.

An active sideperson, Yuma has performed in groups led by Anna Webber, Lesley Mok, Mali Obomsawin, Phillip Golub, Alec Goldfarb, Mat Muntz, DoYeon Kim, Annahstasia, Caroline Rose, and Vethaken. He has also performed alongside artists including Mary Halvorson, David Virelles, Adam O’Farrill, Ches Smith, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, and Jacob Garchik. He has appeared at venues such as Roulette, National Sawdust, The Jazz Gallery, and Close Up, and can be heard on Pi, American Dreams, and NotTwo Records. As a composer, he has received recognition from the ASCAP Foundation, Metropolis, and Either/Or Ensemble. In 2025, he was named in both the Clarinet and Soprano Sax Rising Star categories in the DownBeat Critics Poll and Readers Poll. Yuma is a D’Addario Woodwinds artist and plays their reeds.

Alongside his work in formal settings, Yuma remains deeply engaged in Brooklyn’s DIY music community, performing in basements, back rooms of bars, and artist-run spaces. He considers these environments a lifeblood of the creative music scene, where experimentation, collaboration, and community take shape outside institutional frameworks.