Drummer Yoyoka Soma at the Nova Vita Festival, Irvine, California, 7-28-2024

[@elliott8339]

YOYOKA! Will certainly go down in history as one of the GOATs. Bravo!!!

[@RebuttalRecords]

14 years old and she plays as good as someone twice her age. What Yoyoka is doing here is simply incredible. Imagine how crazily advanced she'll be 10 years from now.

[@namorlam]

Thank you for introducing us to the great Yoyoka who undoubtedly knew how to amaze the crowd present. She is unique.

[@obbor4]

You're welcome. She was great! The crowd could tell right away that, despite the other talents on stage, she was at another level. An amazing talent in such a tiny person. Thanks for commenting!

[@Scott-l1q]

Yoyoka is my hero!! 😊🎉

[@solazoth6661]

Great sound. Well done and thanks for posting. Glad you were able to document this performance. 🎉

[@obbor4]

You are welcome. Having more people aware of her talent is a great thing all around. I'm very surprised that she doesn't have about a million subscribers.

[@alexschwichtenberg1563]

Unbelievable talent wake up music industry

[@obbor4]

I believe that she'll continue to grow as her reputation among musicians as a player increases. She picked us jazz drumming in a matter of days and already has two albums with bassist Ken Okada and one of her own coming out soon. When you see her up close she's still this tiny person whose power and expertise behind the kit is mind-blowing!

[@marciashiraishi5891]

Thank you a lot! You were there, cool! 👍🥁🎵

[@obbor4]

It was the first time that I knew in advance where she would be playing and the food was great too! The only disappointing thing was that the Soma family band wasn't featured. I meant to film the jam that she played with the contest winners of "The Battle of the Bands" (they played Led Zeppein's 'Good Times, Bad Times', the song that most of us were introduced to Yoyoka with, but I accidentally left my phone camera on pause while thinking I was filming. 😕) Yoyoka's mom was filming her performance from the next table. Maybe she'll put it up on the Soma family site later. It was great seeing the whole family in real life and Yoyoka, as you can see, was amazing as always. Thanks for viewing and commenting!

[@marksharman8029]

Woah. That was an extreme solo, really going places there. Sparkling is always welcome, vibrant and uplifting. Thanks for sharing Yoyo-san.

[@obbor4]

You're welcome. She certainly has talented hands and feet and a mind to be able to play all of this stuff like she'd been doing it for decades. Simply amazing.

[@marksharman8029]

@@obbor4 yep. I have been following her since she was 7. I'm a huge fan . The early days were mind-blowing for her potential; and these days, well she is on track to achieve reat things. Moving to America was a positive move...

[@obbor4]

@@marksharman8029 Me too. I hope living here will work out for her and the family. A big leap of faith, but she's making legitimate fans among musicians everywhere that she goes. Every band in the world is made better by having a great drummer. They know what they are getting with Yoyoka.

[@denniseldridge2936]

@@obbor4 She's been playing for more than a decade now, even though she's only fourteen, which is kind of mind blowing. I heard that when she was pretty much just learning to walk she toddled over to the drum kit that her family band had set up and was hoisted onto the knee of the drummer. She hasn't left that spot since lol. Thank you for this great video, as it's kind of rare to get video of her smaller performances like this. 🙂

[@donaldbohn3183]

Imagine what she could do with a Neil Peart set!

[@melmel075]

Have you heard her cover of YYZ? -- it is on her youtube channel

[@melmel075]

wow that "sound guy" at the front of the stage ( 2:34 ) tweaking things is @yoyoka_soma 's awesome father, isn't it? 😎

[@melmel075]

in addition to being her father, it seems like he is her sound engineer, manager and everything else -- basically her swiss army knife. What a great guy!