SHAI MAESTRO QUARTET

All About Jazz magazine said that listening to his music was like waking up to a new world, and if truth be told, the career of this Israeli pianist, born in 1987, has lived up to such a high-flown assertion. His six albums attest to the skill and talent of a musician who took up the piano when he was five and began to soak up the works of Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson when he was just eight. Who would have thought back then that many years later he would be signed by ECM, Manfred Eicher’s legendary label where Jarrett, among many others, made his name. Improvisation, instinct and a pronounced sensitivity have characterised his career over the last decade, during which he has performed all over the world (almost always in trio format) on tours in which he has shared the stage with Chick Corea, Tigran Hamasyan, Esperanza Spalding and Diana Krall. Before that, Shai Maestro was part of Avishai Cohen’s trio, together with Mark Guiliana, on four albums released on the Blue Note label.