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Makiko Hirabayashi

Makiko Hirabayashi is a Japanese pianist and 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 debut album as a leader in 2006. Throughout the last two dacades, she has toured extensively through Europe and Asia with her trio featuring Marilyn Mazur and Klavs Hovman, her quartet Weavers and with diverse projects led by Europe’s top notch musicians.

Makiko’s latest and tenth studio album “Gifts” (enja 2025) is recorded with her qaurtet Weavers, following their first album which won Jazz Album Of The Year at Danish Music Awards 2021. Triggered by a composition commission by the Händel Festival in Halle, the making of this album served as a deeply personal journey for the Tokyo born pianist. Memories of Händel’s music she heard in her youth have inspired her to write nine tracks that sound both new and reflective – symbolizing the universal quality of Händel’s music and its transformative power. The music on this album, featuring some of the leading figures on the Scandinavian music scene – Fredrik Lundin (sax), Thommy Andersson (b) and Bjørn Heebøll (d) – flows effortlessly through intricate written passages and improvisation, while keeping the collective, creative force at its core.

With her long-standing trio – Makiko Hirabayashi Trio, she has released 5 studio albums and toured internationally for over two decades. Their vibrant interplay and strong compositions with a great storytelling quality have captured the imagination of many around the globe. The trio’s latest album Meteora was listed amongst The Best Albums of 2023 by Downbeat Magazine, and Makiko was nominated for Jazz Composer Of The Year at Danish Music Awards 2024.

As a sidewoman, she plays an active role in numerous projects led by Marilyn Mazur, and has worked with Enrico Rava, Norma Winstone, Nils Petter Molvær and Josefine Cronholm amongst others.

Makiko was born 1966 in Tokyo, 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 on the piano, 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.

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

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 4, 2024

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" ...

Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi/Flemming Agerskov: Binocular

Read "Binocular" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
January 29, 2015

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 ...

Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi: Surely

by Budd Kopman
October 30, 2014

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 ...

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Album Review

Makiko Hirabayashi: Makiko

by Jay Deshpande
May 14, 2008

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 ...

“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)