[2] He began playing the piano professionally at the age of 17,[2][3] "accompanying singers, magicians and strippers at a cabaret in the Ginza district".
[7] Satoh played at the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival as part of a trio; he used a then-unusual ring modulator to alter the sound.
[9] Satoh has written arrangements for recordings led by, among others, Merrill, Kimiko Itoh, and Nancy Wilson.
[2] For instance, he made the music of Kanashimi no Belladonna, a film in which the sound is very important; all the songs of this movie are performed by his wife, Chinatsu Nakayama.
A fictionalized version of Masahiko Satoh appears in Izumi Suzuki's short story "Hey, It's a Love Psychedelic!"