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Makiko Hirabayashi

Makiko Hirabayashi is a prize-winning pianist/composer, based in Copenhagen since 1990. She has received wide critical acclaim as a personal voice on the international jazz scene since the release of her first trio album in 2006, featuring Marilyn Mazur (Miles Davis Group, Jan Garbarek Group) and Klavs Hovman. This trio has toured extensively throughout Europe and Asia over the last 17 years.

Her latest release with the new quartet, Weavers won the Danish Music Award for Jazz Album Of The Year 2021. This project, featuring some of the leading figures of the Scandinavian music scene, (Fredrik Lundin-Thommy Andersson-Bjørn Heebøll) sees her expanding her musical universe with a fresh approach. Keeping the collective, creative force at its core, Weavers explore new paths in music, balancing between strong lyricism and abstract soundscapes

Makiko Hirabayashi has released eight albums as a leader, including 4 with her trio, a duo album with the American saxophonist Bob Rockwell and a trio album with Flemming Agerskov (tp) and Francesco Cali (acc). As a composer, she was the recipient of the Honorary Award from the Danish Composers Association in 2020.

Since the beginning of her career, Makiko has worked with a wide range of musicians, both on the jazz scene and the world music scene. As a sidewoman, she plays an active role in numerous projects led by Marilyn Mazur, and has worked with many of Europe’s top notch musicians, including Enrico Rava, Norma Winstone, Nils Petter Molvær, Audun Kleive, and Josefine Cronholm.

Makiko Hirabayashi was born 1966 in Tokyo, Japan, where she started playing piano at the age of 4. Spending 5 years of her formative years in Hong Kong – a cultural melting pot at the time, has had a lasting impact on her life. At age 20, she won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her original intention to study film scoring quickly shifted towards improvising and composing, as she found herself immersed in the live jazz scene of Boston. Since 1990, she has been based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her multicultural background and musical diversity is reflected in her music. Elements of jazz, classical music, Far Eastern music and Nordic moods are all molded into an intriguing, compelling sound of her own.

Awards

Awards/Grants
2021 • Danish Music Award – Jazz Album Of The Year for “Weavers”
2020 • Honorary Award, DJBFA (Danish Composers Association)
2009 • Jazz Audio Disk Award -Best Instrumental Album for “Hide And Seek” (Jazz Critique Magazine, Japan)
2009 • Jazz Melody Award for title track, “Hide And Seek” (Jazz Critique Magazine, Japan)
1995 • Best Arrangement Prize, Public Prize and 3rd Prize with Sisters at Europ’ Jazz Contest, Bruxelles
 


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Radio & Podcasts

A Few More of My Favorite 2023 Jazz Things - Part 3

Read "A Few More of My Favorite 2023 Jazz Things - Part 3" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


A playlist with a few more among the songs that we have collected through the past six months with a plan to share them, all at once, in an attempt to close out the year under more than a few good notes. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Johnathan Blake “A Slight Taste" Passage (Blue Note) 0:16 Host talks 8:49 Elio Villafranca “Standing By The Crossroads" ...

10
Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi/Flemming Agerskov: Binocular

Read "Binocular" reviewed by Budd Kopman


Binocular is an extraordinary piece of musical art. Pianist Makiko Hirabayashi has a distinct, recognizable style of composition and performance. Her music has a kind of floating quality created by melodic phrases and lines which imply tonality rather than stating it, phrase lengths and rhythmic accents which further weaken any overt tonality, plus a piano and pedal technique which many times overlaps notes, creating many high overtones that add a shimmering envelop to the sound. She ...

8
Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi: Surely

Read "Surely" reviewed by Budd Kopman


Surely, the pianist Makiko Hirabayashi Trio's third album, is both utterly captivating and immediately enjoyable. It is also, however, rather disquieting to anyone who listens more deeply because this music flatly refuses to be pinned down. Here, the whole is much more than the sum of the parts, but the parts remain in paradoxical relation to each other. For sure, the question, “What is Jazz?" will not be answered by Surely. Hirabayashi's, and by extension, the Trio's, art ...

414
Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi: Makiko

Read "Makiko" reviewed by Jay Deshpande


Makiko Hirabayashi may be the ideal emblem of today's multicultural jazz musician, caught in a web of influences. Born in Tokyo and educated in Boston, Hirabayashi is now a major pianist in Denmark, where she resides. Her debut album signals this globalism, presenting her with two top-notch Danish players on her own compositions.Makiko showcases a careful choice of tones and sounds, all of which add up to a common texture: cloudy, occasionally mystifying, and most frequently somber. “Camel ...

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“There are many fine pianists from Japan, but more than anyone, Makiko Hirabayashi invites you to the musical universe of wonder, where the depths and forms of the human emotions are revealed, and become landscapes where stories are told.” (Kazutomi Aoki)

“The feeling is closer to that of late dusk rather than early dawn, but with the uplifting intensity of creation, exploration and wonderment. Every note, every gesture matters and there is nothing extra.” (Budd Copmann 2015)

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Meteora

Enja Records
2023

buy

Weavers

Enja Records
2021

buy

Maluba Orchestra

Stunt Records/Sundance Music
2019

buy

Where The Sea Breaks

Enja Records
2017

buy

Gong

Gateway Music
2016

buy

Surely

Enja Records
2014

buy

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