Masa Takumi

Masa Takumi (also known as Masanori Takumi) was born in Osaka, Japan.^[11] He is the nephew of Hideki Saijo.^[12] Takumi started playing the trumpet at eight years old in his elementary school's brass band and started playing the drums and composing music at twelve years old.^[13] During his teen years he taught himself to play the guitar, bass, and piano. In 2000, Takumi joined the band, Siren where he was a songwriter, drummer, and sound producer. The group signed a record deal with BMG Japan but disbanded in 2004 and Takumi decided to pursue composing and producing full-time.^[14]

Takumi is a composer and music producer, and plays the guitar, piano, bass, drums, and the shamisen.

In Asia, he has written and arranged songs for major recording artists Exile, Daigo, Da Pump, Cute, AAA,^[15] Shiritsu Ebisu Chugaku (Japan),^[16] Kara, and FT Island (South Korea), among others.^[17] Takumi also composes and produces music for numerous anime TV series such as Claymore, Witchblade, Peach Girl, Genshiken, and Koi Kaze.^{[18][better source needed]}

He has worked with US recording artists, writing and producing music for Eric Martin and Terry Bozzio.^[19] In 2017, he wrote the song Let’s Make A Video for Poppy and wrote Reflection for Trey Songz in 2018.^[20][21]

Takumi was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2014 for the album Reggae Connections, as a member of Sly and Robbie. He released Stars Falling in 2016, and his 2017 album Deep Down won a bronze medal for Best Contemporary Instrumental Music at the Global Music Awards 2018.^[22] The music video for Deep Down was nominated for a Hollywood Music In Media Awards for Best Independent Music Video in 2018. In 2020, Takumi began working with Domo Music Group and released, Heritage, which received favorable reviews.^[7]

Takumi's 2021 album release, Sakura, won a Grammy Award for Best Global Music Album in 2023.^[1] He was an associate producer on Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej's 2023 album, Police Without Borders and was selected for Newsweek magazine's "100 Most Respected Japanese People in the World."^[23][24] Also in 2023, Takumi was invited by the United States Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, where he performed live.^[14]

In 2024, he was nominated for a Grammy award for "Kashira" for Best Global Music Performance.^[25]