MEDIA
I had a wonderful interview last week with radio host Kim Berry from Denver’s KUVO, 89.3FM. Listen here to our conversation, which first aired on Monday, February 23, 2026 on her Midday Jazz program.
I was delighted to be interviewed recently by Michael Ambrosino for his program Dialogs on 33.third.org.
Please listen here, and below please read Michael’s insightful and kind words about my work. Thank you, Michael!
YOKO YATES — Poetry in Motion
British artist Andy Goldsworthy has established his storied career crafting environmental installations that showcase the innate beauty of the world. Contemplative, disarming, and elegant beyond words, Goldsworthy’s work has featured a variety of timeless portals, a series of intimate lens for how we move through the world.
In the world of Jazz, pianist Yoko Yates manifests a similar brand of precision and sincerity through music that explores the emotional landscape of memory, place, and time. With her albums Mystic Life and Eternal Moments, Yates maps out her passion for the natural world while crafting a variety of compositions that invite listeners to hear Jazz within a spirited and meditative mindset.
Accompanied by veteran musicians with extensive experience within classical, chamber music, and contemporary Jazz, Yates has quickly defined her place among musical storytellers whose work moves audiences with its intelligence, curious emotional axes, and persistent artistic ingenuity.
With compositions that can often feel like prose poetry or watercolor paintings, Yates builds dynamic structures that honor her love for a variety of musical genres and a life-long passion for the visual arts. In our frenetic world where engagement too often transcends substance, Yates uses the inherent integrity of simplicity to slowly unpack the unique identity of her substantial skills as a composer and arranger.
Grounded by the principles that guide her musical explorations, Yates has already positioned herself as an artist worthy of dedicating the time and space to fully appreciate her work. Her albums reveal themselves like great books, each song another chapter in the growing authority of her burgeoning career.
Michael Ambrosino writes about music and culture, producing and hosting a variety of Jazz programs on 33third.org including Los Olvidados, an audio documentary on Pan-Latin Jazz.
Yoko was interviewed on November 25th by Jazz Blues European Union to talk about Eternal Moments and her creative process. Read the interview here.
Yoko sat down for an interview for the November 23rd edition of the Neon Jazz interview series about her second album, Eternal Moments. Listen to it here…
“Pianist-composer Yoko Yates expands on her unique musical concept on her Eternal Moments, her stunning sophomore album, set for a September 19 release on Banka Records. Retaining the quintet from her 2022 debut Mystic Life—flutist Jamie Baum, multi-reedist Sam Sadigursky, bassist Aryeh Kobrinsky, and drummer Jeff Hirshfield—it also includes 10 original post-bop jazz compositions that explore Yates’s enmeshed fascinations with visual imagery, autobiography, and the natural world…”
Read the full press release here.
JANUARY 6, 2023
All about Jazz named Kaleidoscope from Mystic Life one of the “Top 50 Jazz songs of 2022!”
OCTOBER 14, 2022
Jungle Flowers from Mystic Life is All About Jazz’s
SONG OF THE DAY!
Click here to download for free and please share on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages!
AUGUST 2022
Kaleidoscope from Mystic Life was introduced at The Moderns Jazz Mix Tape 24 by Kevin Press.
Click here to listen to the mix of songs, starting with Yoko’s Kaleidoscope!
APRIL 2022
Mystic Life was featured on 33ThirdJazz by Michael Ambrosino as music to fuel your renewal!
April 2022
Michael Ambrosino again featured Mystic Life on 33ThirdJazz!
Click here to listen to Kaleidoscope and read Yoko’s inspiration behind the song.
Yoko and her song Cosmos from Mystic Life are featured on Joe Dimino’s playlist for Neon Jazz’s 754th episode!
Listen to Yoko’s radio interview on Neon Jazz.
Click here to enjoy!
