Drum Teacher Reacts: YOYOKA and Ai Furusato - Changes

[@obbor4]

Ai and I attended Yoyoka's 15th birthday show, in Hollywood, this past Sunday. Ai was on stage, of course, and I was in the audience. The girls played two songs during a two-and-a-half-hour show featuring Yoyoka, her family band, and many guest players. The young ladies were fantastic to see live and Yoyoka played brilliantly all night. She is also quite funny during her introductions and audience interactions. A great night of entertainment it was. Someday I'll be able to tell people I saw them play before they each go on to greater and greater fame.

[@Kissanpieru]

They are both incredibly talented. I was honestly surprised by that young girl's sense of style, and her understanding of the jazz language. I am happy for the opportunity for these young talents to study music at a high level.

[@nadionmediagroup]

Not sure what I was expecting going in, but WOW. that was a genuine experience for me. I was surprised constantly with the transitions, just incredible. I love when I make accidental amazing discoveries. Thanks.

[@eldergeektromeo9868]

These two young women are simply fantastic! High school or not! They rock!

[@adladl4276]

Yoyoka is on another planet now. Remember a few years back when she was doing rock song covers. Exceptional performance from two young beauties.

[@SynicalDan]

Yoyoka has left the “great for a kid drummer” tag far behind her. She’s a brilliant musician and composer, period.

[@jeffwhyte5867]

Ai just graduated Tokyo International High School at age 12. She just celebrated her 13th BD at Berklee. This is the second or third time that she and Yoyoka have collab'd. I believe this will be on her new album to be released on her 15th BD next month.

[@NachtmahrNebenan]

What a fantastic cooperation! Thanks for going into this, Andrew 🌺

[@Book-bz8ns]

On Yoyoka's live stream just now, she said theyll be playing this live at the Bourbon Room October 12, Yoyo's birthday show.

[@rob_weed]

Birthday is 12th. Show is 13th.

[@ChurchOfTheHolyMho]

As I was recently listening to one of Yoyoka's free form drum solos - I was thinking how interesting it would be to consider her live drum solo at age 7 (in the Onyx video reaction) vs her drum solos now at age 14. She's awesome... And I love that her musical acumen has gotten to the point where she has so much muscle memory going... I read a chat that apparently she was playing a viewer requested song during a live stream - and appeared distracted although playing the song flawlessly... When live chat asked her what was up - she apparently admitted that she wasn't paying attention to the song as she was reading live chat in real time. lol.. There also is a video where she is doing some really tasty bits during a warmup with some incredible bass playing going on - and appears (unclear in video) to reach down mid song to check her phone's messages... while still playing some amazing syncopation perfectly in time... I did this once - but I had been playing the same song with the same band for years... (and I didn't realize until the band said "OMG" at the end of the song - and I was afraid that I'd been dragging or playing flat - because I wasn't paying attention... and they said I'd nailed it... An fun moment for me..) but it's completely different if you don't know the song well or are just improvising on the fly. Watching Yoyoka grow and improve in such a short time has been such a fun journey.

[@semprini77]

The hip-hop feel is something I hadn’t considered, very interesting observation. I reckon that Yoyoka’s improvisations will draw from a wide range of styles, as she is so spontaneous and intuitive. Thanks for the reaction!

[@daveintx]

Thanks for the great reaction, Andrew! Yoyoka has been playing jazz gigs and recording albums with the Ken Okada Group in the Bay area. These two young ladies just need to get together and form the world's youngest jazz group!

[@KansaSCaymanS]

I don’t know if Ellen On Bass has played much jazz, but they would make a fantastic young trio. 😎

[@dannelson6980]

I've been listening to this for about month. Another great song from Ai and Yoyoka. I have never heard of piano / drum duo before now I'm questioning why not? This was recorded at Studio Dede in Tokyo when Yoyoka and her father went back to Japan for a week or two. She has played a few live shows with Ai as well. I'm not sure if this will be on Yoyoka's new album that will be released in about a month. The singles she has released so far show a large musical vocabulary, it is pretty much a musician's album from what she has released so far. Her two jazz albums with Ken Okada are fantastic. I would Ai and Yoyoka to release an album together, or add Ellen on bass and make it a trio.

[@glenkelley6799]

The song "Changes" will be included in her album

[@jeffwhyte5867]

@@glenkelley6799 Ellen on bass would be exceptional, what a trio!!

[@saltyshowers9356]

For years you worked your butt of to get to 100K subs. Within a relative short time you've hit 150K subs. Congratulations Mr. Rooney on your good work and succes. Already the start of this video did make me smile. IM Eddie watching a Jazz video of two young female guns; the feel of those two is impressive. Without a shadow of a doubt this is proof of the open mind and wide variety of music that is being analysed by you on your channel. The last two years Yoyoka really got into Jazz with already contributions on two full albums for Ken Okada on her name. This week she released another majestic Jazzy thing with Marco Mendoza where she stripped it down to the core of rhythm. In October Yoyoka will release het own full album round her 15th birthday. The journey of the Soma family in the USA is not easy to say the least. I hope they will succeed.

[@jonad5902]

Amazing video, as always!! love from Argentina Andrew!!

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

Hola amigo!

[@jonad5902]

@@AndrewRooneyDrums hahaha, hello my friend!! I hope you are having a nice day!

[@bostermanp]

Hola amigos, from Uruguay, argentina's daddy😅; Very short, Andrew; have You ever watched/heard something from Yoyoka that was'nt very mind blowing?

[@Glen.Black.]

Thanks for your great analysis, as always! I get the impression they were looking through a window (at each other) in the studio staring deep into each other's soul.

[@Rob-Yule]

They were absolutely looking at each other according to YOYOKA when I asked during a zoom call

[@Glen.Black.]

@@Rob-Yule Thanks Rob!

[@magnushallin3640]

They have eye contact through a window between the studio rooms. They have a video about the session and Yoyokas vlogs from her Japan journey this summer showed some bits of the rehersal - they were discussing the ending with the drums halting in an odd place rhytmically. It turned out nice. Nice reaction because there are too many Changes to react to them all...

[@gregorytrotter6657]

Ai Furusato had to have a high school diploma to apply at Berkeley. She studied all the necessary classes, challenged everything, and got her diploma. Her ambition is to be the world's best pianist by age 20. Ai and YOYOKA have several collaberative covers or originals on KZbin, some with other musicians. All are worth repeated listens. Ai also has videos of her playing at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC with an ensemble. Good stuff.

[@glenkelley6799]

Thanks for the analysis and reaction, these two talented musicians continue to defy expectations. She'll be releasing her first full album this Oct. 13th and a release party will most of the musicians that have collaborated with her on this album, including Ai (she'll be coming from Berklee (in Boston) to LA. She also finished recording a new song with Roman Morello on guitar (he's 13 and son ot Tom Morolla) .

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

Oh wow! Thanks for the info!

[@helenlig323]

Great reaction, Andrew, and I really like the look of your studio. Always great to check in with Yoyoka and her friends. Thanks!

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

Thank you too!

[@KansaSCaymanS]

I’m guessing that Yoyoka was in a sound booth with a window into the studio where Ai was playing, since it appears that they were looking at each other during the recording. Thanks for the reaction to this! 😎👍

[@TomRussell-cy6ll]

Holy Sh..t.....I am constantly being amazed by the young talent coming out of the east !!!!!!! They are embarrassing the Western music industry !!!!! Love It !!!!!!!

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

Phenomenal players grounded with work ethic

[@chrisegbertky]

You said it! ​@@AndrewRooneyDrums

[@ojacid]

I would definitely buy that album.

[@namorlam]

Thanks Andrew for the always excellent comments. What can I say about this absolutely extraordinary collaboration between two musical geniuses. And to think that Yoyoka is 14 and Ai is only 13 if I'm not mistaken.

[@kurtschmidt9760]

Great reaction Andy. I have argued a little with her stalwart backers. They say she loves funk and that is her forte, but i argue it is jazz. It frees her up to improvise and she loves it. It may be that i love jazz better then most. I just really thinks she loves jazz just my opinion

[@andrewplumb6544]

I think she now has a jazz preference.

[@chrisegbertky]

Her heart still belongs to rock and roll but she backs a hip hop group as drummer and,as others have mentioned, has recorded 2 albums of jazz with the Ken Okada group. Her dream band would include Flea and Cory Wong. But dear Lord she can play!

[@tomtiernan8134]

The song is called, Sparkles. They capture the sense of sparkles in the music. Two young girls going places in the music world.

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

Yeah they are doing great!

[@chrisegbertky]

Not to be prissy but the song is Sparkling and the piano/drum version is tge best version IMHO!

[@tomtiernan8134]

@@chrisegbertky I think you’re right. I must have been in a sparkly mood when I wrote that.

[@chrisegbertky]

Excellent reaction good sir!

[@toyfreaks]

OMG they sound like Steve Gadd and Michael Omartian on a track that got cut from a Steely Dan album... Maybe Aja, or Goucho

[@KeithAllpress]

😢I remember when people commenting in her earlier years that she should do jazz or even that she will never be any good at it but I remember saying no, she is better exploring rock and whatever she wants it's all great development and she may discover jazz when she is ready. Then she moves stateside and suddenly there it is. To play is one thing but composing already...pretty special.

[@nederlanditism1154]

Those low, dark, rolling notes of the intro are enough to have me convinced. Ai Furusato is a perfect match (for the time being) for Yoyoka's modern jazz drumming. For a long time of following the drumming genius, in this case now, I'm not totally sure whom my admiration is credited to the most. (I thought there were hints of My Favourite Things, which, BTW, received a fresh vocal featured interpretation from the hands of Justin Wilson.)

[@PjYogiBear]

Ai is the youngest student to be awarded a full scholarship to Berklee College. Possibly the youngest to gain admission too..

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

🤯

[@lmk001]

That's what you call ABA form I believe. she's a really good jazz pianist and he's a frickin monster drummer. Nice pick

[@andrewplumb6544]

She is the drummer.

[@chrisegbertky]

2 shes.

[@markdecker6190]

Yes and ditto to what you just said about how great it would be to have an album of this. It's one of the frustrating things about discovering new or unique pieces like this, these one offs that aren't usually available as an MP3 download. I suppose I could "copy" it off of YT directly using software but the quality suffers too much. Yoyoka has come so far in so short a period of time, I just love it.

[@MossRoller99]

'Changes' is available on iTunes.

[@markdecker6190]

@@MossRoller99 😁

[@Afther]

Dont know if you seen it already but the new Opeth drummer just did a playthrough of their new album single. Its an incredible perfomance. Can't imagine a better reactor than you to watch that. As always nice reaction/analysis!

[@KimMoonbmwmoonie]

You missed the call back at 5:48 :) Great compositon and execution

[@branscombeR]

JD Beck/Domi style, anyone? Domi is a product of Berklee also ... (she graduated in 2020) ... R (Australia)

[@infinite7501]

I'm an Avant Garde, Extreme Metal Drummer. I would love to see a Deep Dive, Rabbit Hole Jazz Drummer week of Reactions!!!

[@donnelson6694]

Berklee is lucky to have her.

[@morbidmanmusic]

solo was not quite in context. It was a rock solo. all the other stuff was great, and the cymbal sounds~~

[@larseikind666]

Ah. Nice piano/drum combo. I wish he had the snare tuned a little bit higher so it wouldn't interfere with the frequencies of the rest. But nicely played.

[@andrewplumb6544]

She.

[@larseikind666]

@@andrewplumb6544 Oops. Sorry.

[@AndrewRooneyDrums]

I actually agree. Could be dialled more for my liking. But she’s killing it regardless

[@donaldt.lavelle7185]

Amazing stuff! Definitely sub to Yoyoka, and don't forget to sub to Ai too! www.youtube.com/@AiFurusato

[@toyfreaks]

No... Pretzel Logic for sure

[@leonidascortes5523]

Made in japan

[@dockweilerrefugee6679]

Yamaha makes superior pianos..Steinway....really???

[@KansaSCaymanS]

Asians often consider some Western or European brands (especially German when it comes to cars) to be more prestigious and/or superior to their own country’s products.

[@Rob-Yule]

I suspect it was just what the studio had.

[@tibetbill]

Good to see you back in action on the Yoyoka front as you were mia for a while. Yoyoka is releasing 14 song album, called for teen, in two weeks for her birthday on Oct 12 when she turns 15. You have one of the tunes right now. Here is another, kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5zceoSPrrx9hLM Here is another. I know you know who Joe Morello is. His son is Tom Morello who has a son named Roman Morello playing on the video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJmoomSljaeXp5o She is very active playing with several different bands in LA, playing the LA circuit, including her family band. Here are a couple recent solos. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2fTc6SNaqekbtU kzbin.info/www/bejne/bp_SZGCLaKqXnZo Yes, she stills plays rock. Between school and her taking up learning Chinese, makes you wonder where she finds time. kzbin.info/www/bejne/on62nYGKZ6tkhdk Keep them coming.