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Art Hirahara

Art Hirahara is a jazz keyboardist and composer based in New York, NY. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Art moved to New York in 2003 to be challenged by its pool of world-class musicians. Here he has honed his craft, performing in a wide range of musical situations ranging from straight ahead standards to time cycle-based progressive jazz to free improvisation. From the traditional to the avant-garde, Art has found a sound of his own that cuts across genres and boundaries.

Art began his training in music at the age of four, studying with Sue Shannon, an unconventional classical piano teacher who taught improvisation and composition from the earliest stages of musical development. This provided the foundation for his awakening to jazz during his studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a degree in Electronic and Computer Music. During his junior year, he began jazz piano studies with the Cleveland jazz giant, Neal Creque.

He then continued at California Institute of the Arts, where he was mentored by David Roitstein, Charlie Haden and Wadada Leo Smith. It was there that he immersed himself in world music, focusing on West African drumming and dance, Balinese gamelan and North Indian tabla. After his move to New York, Art studied at the Banff Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music program with Dave Douglas in 2004.

Art has had the privilege to perform with Stacey Kent, Freddy Cole, Akira Tana, Rufus Reid, Don Braden, Roseanna Vitro, Dave Douglas, Vincent Herring, Victor Lewis, Travis Sullivan s Bjorkestra, Jim Black, Jenny Scheinman, Greg Cohen, Fred Ho, Sean Nowell, royal hartigan and Hafez Modirzadeh. He has performed around the world in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East and extensively around the United States.

In New York, he has played at the city ’s premier venues, including Birdland, Smalls, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Jazz Standard and 55 Bar. In addition to performing, Art is an educator. He has taught master classes both domestically and abroad. He taught at the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory and was a performing member of NY PopsEd, an educational organization focusing on bringing music to elementary and secondary schools.

Art ’s piano and compositional sound are an amalgamation of the varied musical influences he has studied and the wide range of leaders he has worked for. Art is constantly seeking new situations to challenge his musicality. Most recently has worked as a producer for recordings and musical director for various artists of different genres.

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4
Album Review

Art Hirahara: Peace Unknown

Read "Peace Unknown" reviewed by Kyle Simpler


Art Hirahara is one of the most in-demand pianists in contemporary jazz, appearing on countless recordings while steadily building an impressive solo career. WithPeace Unknown, he continues his prolific partnership with Posi-Tone Records, with a deeply personal and expansive set that brings new life to earlier compositions while introducing bold new material. Framed within a robust four-horn ensemble, the album stands as both a reflection on the past and a forward-looking artistic statement, elegantly merging lyrical expressiveness with structural daring. ...

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Liner Notes

Something Blue: In The Beginning

Read "Something Blue: In The Beginning" reviewed by Michael Ambrosino


Jazz is powered by many things. Perhaps most notably, the expansive variety of independent record labels representing some of the more inspiring aspirations of the idiom. Reflecting the grit, passion and often sheer audacity to exist within an industry that makes little room for jazz, independent labels have established an expanse of music that exemplifies the very essence of the art form. For the past 30 years, Posi-Tone Records has championed this independent spirit, shining a light on a rich ...

4
Album Review

Diego Rivera: West Circle

Read "West Circle" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Let it not be said that Posi-Tone Records fails to put its weight and resources behind the artists it believes in. A case in point is the volume of releases that entail the combinations of tenor/soprano saxophonist Diego Rivera, pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston. In the last five years, discs in which two or more of these artists participate have exceeded three dozen. A sample of the projects includes dates led by all of them ...

5
Album Review

Posi-Tone Swingtet: In Jazz We Trust

Read "In Jazz We Trust" reviewed by Joshua Weiner


The Posi-Tone Records label, founded and run by producer Marc Free and engineer Nick O'Toole, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2025. Given the many upheavals in the music business since 1995--the rise of file sharing, the introduction of iTunes, iPod, and iPhone, the decline of the compact disc concomitant with the rise of streaming services, the shrinking influence of major labels with the rise of self-released music, and the recent rediscovery of vinyl--the label is justly proud not only to ...

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Album Review

Posi-Tone Swingtet: In Jazz We Trust

Read "In Jazz We Trust" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


In the mid-'90s, when Posi-Tone released its first album, the recording industry landscape was completely different than it is today. Small independent labels were not the norm, every artist did not have their own imprint and Napster had yet to arrive to kick off the access revolution. It was, quite simply, a different world--one where label co-founder Marc Free was poised and able to transform a dream into reality by shining a light on established players deserving a closer look ...

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Album Review

Blue Moods: Force & Grace

Read "Force & Grace" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Blue Moods' Force & Grace is the third in a series of Posi-Tone releases in which music of under-recognized jazz composers is given a fair shake by bands comprised of some of the label's leading lights. This time around, the group features 12 compositions by Freddie Hubbard, a figure revered for his prowess as a trumpeter, to the neglect of his talent as a writer. The material receives straightforward no-frills treatments, making it easier to savor Hubbard's penchant for writing ...

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Album Review

Diego Rivera: Ofrenda

Read "Ofrenda" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Tenor and soprano saxophonist Diego Rivera has amassed an impressive track record on the Posi-Tone imprint as a leader, sideman, and other projects curated by producer Marc Free. Ofrenda, a ten-movement suite, is a vehicle for Rivera's impressions of aspects of altars corresponding with the traditional Mexican holiday Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). In essence, an ofrenda is usually created by and placed in the home of the family of a person who has passed away.

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Event

Mychelle Colleary, Elias Bailey, Art Hirahara at Mannahatta 4/16

Mychelle Colleary, Elias Bailey, Art Hirahara at Mannahatta 4/16

Source: All About Jazz

2007 MAC nominee for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist MYCHELLE COLLEARY with Elias Bailey on bass and Art Hirahara on piano

at MANNAHATTA LOUNGE 8pm-10pm 316 Bowery @ Bleecker, New York City http://www.mannahatta.us 212.253.8644

Monday, April 16th 8pm-10pm NO COVER , 1 drink minimum per set

This is PICK-UP jazz... Like pick-up basketball... We show up and just play! Great good fun of improvised, arrangements while-you-wait, loveliness

This ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Force & Grace

Posi-Tone Records
2025

buy

In Jazz We Trust

Posi-Tone Records
2025

buy

West Circle

Posi-Tone Records
2025

buy

Peace Unknown

Posi-Tone Records
2025

buy

In The Beginning

Posi-Tone Records
2025

buy

Earth Wind and...

Self Produced
2024

buy

Stop This Climate Change

From: Lift You Up
By Art Hirahara

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