Capturing the Moment, Turning It into Sound
Akira Nakamura is a drummer, composer, and improviser from Shuri, Naha, Okinawa.
Moving between acoustic drums and electronics, he creates music shaped by minimal melodies, repetition and subtle change, and a sense of both stillness and forward motion. For Nakamura, improvisation is not simply a way of playing freely, but a way of creating music by responding to the space, the people, and the passage of time in each moment.
After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Performance, he began his professional career in the United States. He has since lived and worked in New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Berlin, performing and creating music across jazz, funk, pop, world music, and experimental music. His collaborations include Hiromi Uehara, David Fiuczynski, Sam Kininger, Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, Angelo Moore, Michiru Monday, and many other artists in Japan and abroad.
Since 2023, Nakamura has focused more extensively on his solo work and live performances. He has released the albums we have only one season (2023), we can be, what we want to be (2024), and we always knew (2026). His music often begins with melodies reduced to their simplest forms, exploring subtle changes within repetition and the sense of time that exists between sounds.
In live performance, he works with acoustic drums, triggers, effects, and synthesizers, with performances largely built through complete improvisation. Rather than reproducing predetermined structures, he creates music in real time by responding to the acoustics of the space, the musicians around him, the audience, and his own physical perception in the moment.
In recent years, his international activities have included appearing as an Official Selection Artist at World Music Festival Taiwan 2024 and serving as an Artist in Residence at Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2025.
Based in Okinawa, Nakamura also works in music direction, event production, and education alongside his performing and recording activities. Since 2020, he has served as General Director of Jazz in Nanjo. For him, performing, creating music, and creating spaces for people to gather are interconnected parts of the same practice.
Selected Collaborations
Hiromi Uehara David Fiuczynski Sam Kininger
BIGYUKI Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra Angelo Moore
Michiru Monday
Selected International Performances
2025 — Copenhagen Jazz Festival
Artist in Residence
2025 — Taipei Dadaocheng International Festival of Arts
2024 — World Music Festival Taiwan
Official Selection Artist
Discography
we always knew — 2026
we can be, what we want to be — 2024
we have only one season — 2023