Gilad Barkan CD Release Party, Boston, MA, May 22, 2007
Join Boston-based pianist Gilad Barkan as he celebrates the release of Live Sessions, just out on New Step Music, in concert at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22nd at the Regattabar, One Bennett Street at the Charles Hotel, Cambridge. Joining Barkan are flutist Amir Milstein, bassist Keala Kaumeheiwa and drummer Steve Langone. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 day of show. For tickets, call 617.395.7757 or log on to getshowtix.com/regattabar/
Barkan's music forms a bridge between cultures. His compositions are poignant and enchanting, harmonically sophisticated yet accessible, linking his love for popular musics from around the world - notably Africa, Brazil, and his Israeli homeland - with a joyous rhythmic and melodic freedom as an improviser, and a distinctly warm and lyrical sound.
Live Sessions finds the Boston-area keyboardist working in two different settings. The double CD, recorded live on WGBH Radio in Boston by Emmy award winning engineer Antonio Oliart, features the trio (with drummer Wirht and bassist Dan Greenspan) heard on his debut recording on one disc, and a quartet (with flutist Amir Milstein, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Wirht) on the other. Both bands bear the unmistakable stamp of a pianist whom the Boston Phoenix said is "enamored of the piano's beautiful tonal qualities and its vast potential for rapturous melody."
Barkan's previous release, Modulation (New Step), is "a welcome example of what a piano trio is still capable of creating... whilst... acknowledging some of the usual influences," said Paul Donnelly in ejazznews.com. As the new album shows, Barkan's economical and nuanced lyricism has only grown more refined.
Born in England and raised in Israel, Barkan grew up in a musical family and took up the piano as a teenager. By the time he was 18, he was performing in a Tel-Aviv nightclub. While enrolled at Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, he won the Jazz Musician of the Year competition, and represented the school at an international conference of jazz schools in Sienna, Italy. Shortly after, he moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. While studying, he performed with the Berklee Advanced Vocal Jazz Ensemble and was awarded a Special Citation for Outstanding Musicianship from the International Association of Jazz Educators for his work with the band. Barkan's group has been invited to perform nationally and internationally, as well as on radio and network television. He recorded and performed extensively with guitarist Issi Rozen and appears regularly as a pianist and bassist with Sergio and Fernando Brandão, and other prominent musicians on Boston's jazz and world music scenes.