Moto Fukushima is a Grammy-nominated bassist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose music dissolves the boundaries between Japanese tradition, Western classical music, jazz, and the rhythmic pulse of South America. Born in Kobe, Japan, and now based in New York City, Fukushima has developed a singular voice on the six-string bass — one that speaks equally in whispers and thunderclaps.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he earned the Outstanding Performer Award and graduated Summa Cum Laude, Fukushima has performed alongside some of the most distinguished names in contemporary music: Mike Stern, Leni Stern, Dave Weckl, Joe Lovano, Donny McCaslin, Karsh Kale, Alex Skolnick, and Gil Goldstein, among others.
As co-leader of Brooklyn-based duo House of Waters — alongside hammered dulcimer virtuoso Max ZT — Fukushima has built an international audience for music that defies easy categorization. The group has released two albums on GroundUp Music (Snarky Puppy's Grammy Award-winning label), with their debut reaching #2 on the iTunes World Music chart and their follow-up hitting #4 on the iTunes Jazz chart. Their album On Becoming, produced by 4x Grammy winner Guy Eckstine and featuring drummer Antonio Sanchez, earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. His music has been featured in the Sports Emmy Award-winning segment on ESPN's E60.
Fukushima's solo work pushes the bass even further. His 2023 album Songs Belong to the Night is a tour de force of unaccompanied six-string bass — 12 compositions for a single instrument, exploring three simultaneous voices across the bass, tenor, and alto registers. It is a quiet revolution in what a bass guitar can be. A recipient of the ASCAP Plus Awardand a top-three finalist in the 2014 International Songwriting Competition, Fukushima continues to expand the language of his instrument.
Deeply influenced by the shamisen tradition of his upbringing, Fukushima brings the sensibility of Japanese classical music into everything he plays — an aesthetic of space, restraint, and deep intention that sets him apart in any genre he inhabits.
Moto Fukushima proudly endorses Adamovic Basses, Aguilar Amplification, ORB Cables, Adamovic Strings, Xvive Audio, and Caveman Pedals.
