Yaron Herman Trio
@ the Pizza Express Jazz Club
21 November 2007
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Biography
Yaron Herman was born in July 1981 and only began playing the piano
at the age of 16 after a basketball accident put an end to the high
hopes pinned on him in international sporting circles.
He learned to play piano under the masterful guidance of Opher
Brayer, following a revolutionary method based on philosophy, mathematics,
psychology, etc. The results are certainly unique in the history
of music and piano playing. Herman would eventually perform at concerts
in the most prestigious venues in Israel.
At 18, Herman left for Boston where he intended to attend the Berklee
College School of Music. However the highly competitive environment,
which left no space for individual fulfilment, failed to inspire
the eager young scholar. Herman decided to return to Tel-Aviv two
months later. The stopover in Paris on the return journey became
prolonged as the musicians he met that night for a jam session hired
him on the spot. He decided to stay on indefinitely.
Herman recorded his first album “Takes 2 to know 1”
on the Sketch label with the drummer Sylvain Ghio when he was 21.
The duo piano and drums surprised and astounded, attracting unanimous
critical acclaim.
What is even more surprising is the depth of his approach to playing
the piano. He developed a theory of musical improvisation called
‘Real Time Composition’, which led Laurent Cugny to
invite him to run a course of lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In June 2005 Herman was awarded both prizes, solo and with the
group Newtopia, in the Concours de la Défense in Paris.
Herman recorded his first solo album on the brand new LABORIE Jazz
label in 2005 after several weeks spent living and working on the
project in the Château de La Borie. Here he presented his
concept ‘Themes and Variations’, where every melody,
each theme hidden in our collective subconscious is the playfully
creative pretext for re-creation, improvisation and invention.
Herman went on to tour Europe, South America and China (he was
the first jazz pianist to give a concert in the Forbidden City in
Beijing).
Herman was awarded Talent Jazz Adami 2007 and was invited to the
Festival de Jazz de Montréal, the Nice Jazz Festival, the
Festival de la Villette and to the London Jazz Festival. |