An important figure of the contemporary improvised scene, Makoto Sato (born 1946 in Niigata, Japan) is a Japanese drummer living in Paris. In 1970, he came to Paris for the first time and had the chance to attend concerts of exceptional musicians such as Sunny Murray, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Alan Silva or Marion Brown. These experiences revealed to him the multiple possibilities of improvisation. Later he met
Don Cherry, Itaru Oki and Masahiko Togashi, and these encounters encouraged him to experiment with music himself. He started to play drums. In 1992, with
Jean-François Pauvros, guitarist and
Jean-Marc Foussat, electroacoustic musician, he creates the band Marteau Rouge. Makoto Sato plays with Joe McPhee, Alan Silva, Itaru Oki, Raymond Boni,
Daunik Lazro, Stéphane Payen, Michael Marcus, Ted Daniel, Lucien Johnson, Rasul Siddik, Tollem McDonas, Eric Zinman, Benjamin Duboc, Geza Tomka... He also works with dancers such as Masaki Iwana, Gyohei Zaitsu or Maki Watanabe.
