Famed Japanese jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita has expressed his burning passion for music by setting his piano on fire at a beach. Let’s take a look.

STORY:
66-year-old jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita is receiving some criticism for wasting a piano.
While playing an improvised jazz piece before about 500 spectators, his piano burst into flames. Yamashita continued playing for a full 10 minutes before the strings burnt out and snapped, and the piano went quiet.

Yosuke Yamashita, Japanese jazz pianist:

“I did not think I was risking my life but I was almost suffocating from the smoke that was continuously getting into my eyes and nose. I had decided to keep on playing until the piano stopped making sounds, so though I did not mean it but it ended up having a life-or -death battle between the piano and myself.”
This extraordinary piano performance was not the first time he has played a burning piano. 35 years ago, when he was a fledgling pianist, Japanese graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu asked him to play for his short film “burning piano”.
Yamashita recently saw the film again and decided to recreate the moment.

Ken Awazu, Son of graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu:

“I think though it is just a 10 minute performance, it holds an essence of artistic expression because he risked his life and career and took
a serious approach to a project which is very ephemeral and unperfectable.”

The organizer, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art of Kanazawa, has countered criticism. They say the burnt-out grand piano was one of hundreds of decades-old donated pianos, which was rarely-used and would have been scrapped