Evento

Merrimans' Playhouse Jazz Performance Series presents the Keigo Hirakawa Trio

Pianist Keigo Hirakawa and is joined by bassist Eddie Brookshire and drummer Fenton Sparks.

The Keigo Hirakawa Trio is a hard hitting, hard swinging, jazz piano trio that reach the highest level of improvisational artistry. Hirakawa's complex rhythmic and harmonic improvisation, Eddie Brookshire's exploration of inside and outside sounds, and Fenton Sparks's spontaneous reactions make each trio performance an adventurous endeavor. Acclaimed jazz pianist Stephen Scott describes Hirakawa's playing as "full of inventiveness and a sense of adventure, creativeness and voracious angularity, aggressiveness, and jaggedness, passion and swing." Jazz critic Mark Sullivan of AllAboutJazz.com characterizes the ensemble as "a true trio, not just piano plus two accompanists." After seeing their show at Gilly's in Ohio, legendary jazz guitarist George Benson even remarked "I had to come to Dayton to hear real jazz!"

Freshly returning from their East Coast Tour, the Keigo Hirakawa Trio will appear at Merriman's Playhouse. The Trio is celebrating their trio album, "And Then There Were Three," released earlier this year. The concert at Merriman's Playhouse will feature a number of selections from this album, as well as time-honored jazz standards.

Hirakawa's musical pedigree is impressive. A jazz pianist with a unique sense of expressiveness and rhythm section interaction, he brings highly personal and energetic style of improvisation to ensembles. He distinguishes himself with his articulate use of harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary and his leadership style on the bandstand. Based in Midwest, Hirakawa can be heard throughout the US and internationally. He has appeared on stage alongside Donald Byrd, JD Allen, Bob Moses, Bobby Lavell, Allen Vizzutti, Eddie Bayard, and Richie Barshay. Trained in New York City and at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, he was a student of many world-renowned jazz artists, including Danilo Perez, Stephen Scott, Harold Danko, Alan Pasqua, Ran Blake, Cecil McBee, Ralph Peterson, Jerry Bergonzi, Donald Byrd, John McNeil, George Garzone, Bob Moses, and Walt Weiskopf.

Hirakawa was the acting director of the Cornell University Jazz Ensembles in 2000-2001, during which time he welcomed Donald Byrd, Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon, Terell Stafford, Vincent Herring, and Joe Chambers onto the stage as guest soloists. He is a passionate clinician and educator, on faculty at the University of Dayton. Hirakawa's trio features Eddie Brookshire, a veteran bassist who has performed with Elvin Jones, Rusty Bryant, Johnny Lytle, and David "Fathead" Newman; and Fenton Sparks, a longtime drummer for Bill Cunliffe.

www.keigohirakawa.com

$10 Advanced, $13 Door, $8 Student
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