Masato Honda
Biography Masato Honda
Masato Honda
Influenced by his parents, who were music teachers, Honda became interested in music from an early age and started playing the saxophone in the third grade of primary school. He was a member of the jazz orchestra at Kunitachi College of Music. He won the first prize and the best soloist award at the Yamano Big Band Jazz Contest in his first appearance. And while still a student, he was the lead alto player in Nobuo Hara and the Sharps & Flats. After graduation, he toured with many of Japan's top artists and also worked as a recording musician for many artists of all genres.
In 1991 he joined the fusion group T-SQUARE. In 1998, he left T-SQUARE and began working as a solo artist. In addition to his own band, he has been involved in projects such as 'Witness', 'B.B. Station', 'Four of a Kind' and 'Voice Of Elements', as well as big band arrangements and production for the collaborative album with Malin. In recent years, he has participated in the BLUE NOTE TOKYO ALL-STAR JAZZ ORCHESTRA, as well as the unit SUPER BRASS STARS with Eijiro Nakagawa and Eric Miyashiro.
While focusing on these artist activities, he has also been involved in sessions with world-renowned artists, recording, arranging and producing.
In 2008, he recorded his first solo work in Los Angeles with Bob James and others; in 2015, Universal Music (GRP Records) released his tenth original album 'SAXES STREET'. Visiting professor at Showa University of Music.
