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Taylor Eigsti: Daylight at Midnight
It's official: pianist Taylor Eigsti has finally outgrown his “prodigy" label.At 26, with two Concord CDs and numerous sideman recordings behind him, Eigsti has finally made the artistic statement he's intended since his career began at the age of 11. Raised on the American songbook, and indoctrinated early into concerns about the continued viability of jazz, Eigsti has always wanted to create new audiences by embracing the favorite material of the iPod generation. In his previous CDs he ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: The Prodigy, Revisited
In 2004, I interviewed both Taylor Eigsti and his mother, Nancy, about what it was like to be (and to raise) a prodigy. In the four years since then, Taylor's career has continued its nearly-vertical trajectory, with two Grammy nominations, two prestigious Piano Jazz shows with Marian McPartland, three jazz magazine covers, and multiple Down Beat Magazine critics' poll recognition.
Now, at the ripe old age of 23, Eigsti continues to carve his place in the ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Let It Come To You
Everyone who hears him seems to agree: Taylor Eigsti is the most exciting progressive-mainstream pianist to come along in a very long time. Pianist Dave Brubeck says, “He's the most amazing talent I've ever come across." Not the most amazing talent Brubeck has come across “in recent years" or “in America," or any such qualification, but the most amazing talent ever, period.
It's all true. Still only 23 years old, Eigsti is like a fresh wind blowing through ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti Quartet at Scullers, Boston
Taylor Eigsti QuartetScullersBoston, MassachusettsMay 14, 2008
From recent recordings with John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Peter Bernstein, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash, James Genus, Billy Kilson, the Brubeck Brothers, and the Czech National Orchestra, 23-year-old Taylor Eigsti has already established himself as a brilliant composer and jazz pianist. At such a young age, his unusual level of maturity has helped him earn the respect of major players as well as labels, as evidenced on his recent Concord ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Let It Come To You
Music is aroused in the soul. Pianist Taylor Eigsti harkens to the call and finds his inspiration in a well-chosen selection of standards and four originals on Let It Come to You.
Eigsti's firm sense of harmony and focused direction turn this outing into a delicious adventure. He gives melody its due even as his innovations brim with exciting ideas. His band adds to the impact, and he is astute enough to utilize the line-up for ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Let It Come To You
It is always a joy, not to mention quite reassuring, for any serious acoustic jazz cognoscente to happen upon a young interpreter of the music that not only masters its tradition, but significantly develops his own voice and sound.Already a veteran at only 23, Taylor Eigsti strongly contests a high-ranking position amidst the ever growing list of working (read: marketed) prodigies. In the pianist/composer's case though, the towering flattery and sizeable publicity such precocious talents usually garner, comes ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Lucky To Be Me
Fire and crisp delicacy go hand in hand on Lucky To Be Me, Taylor Eigsti's major label debut. It is clear that he loves rhythm shifts within a song--and from song to song. His teasing rearrangements of “Giant Steps and “Love For Sale are edgy and delightful. He then turns pop singer Björk's dark ballad “I've Seen It All into a piece of personal introspection. “Woke Up This Morning is the funky, up-tempo theme song to HBO's ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Lucky To Be Me
To play with veteran jazzmen like Christian McBride and Lewis Nash at the tender age of 21, you have to have both talent and a good dose of confidence. Pianist Taylor Eigsti possesses both of these traits and then some, as his first album on Concord, Lucky To Be Me, indicates.
McBride and Nash accompany Eigsti on bass and drums, respectively, on half of the album's twelve tracks. Sometimes the trio is augmented by Julian Lage's guitar, and ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Lucky to Be Me
It must indeed be a lucky thing to be Taylor Eigsti, a 21-year-old pianist who has already been performing for over a decade. After a handful of independent discs comes his Concord debut, Lucky to Be Me, a collection of originals, standards and unexpected interpretations featuring bassist Christian McBride, drummer Lewis Nash and guitarist Julian Lage.From the very top, his reharmonized arrangement of John Coltrane's “Giant Steps" bears all the indications of a mature talent with an adventurous ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Lucky to Be Me
Lucky to Be Me is the fifth release by the talented pianist/composer Taylor Eigsti, and his first on the Concord label. Concord thought enough of Eigsti's label debut to bracket him with some of the best players in the business, including Christian McBride and Lewis Nash. And given the numerous photos of this handsome 21 year-old, they also seem to be positioning him as the next pop idol--and why not, when it's becoming increasingly important to introduce the next generation ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti and the Prodigy Thing
Why do some players have it, and others don't?
Let's assume for the moment that it needs no definition--that we all recognize it when we hear it. We'll also set aside the tendency of the music business to elevate the less-talented and more photogenic, and the sad fact that not everyone who “makes it" actually has it. The question here is more basic: what creates a truly outstanding musician--that is, the one who has it ? Is it ...
read moreTaylor Eigsti: Prodigy Taking Jazz World by Storm
Listening to the opening moments of Resonance, the Bop City debut of piano whirlwind Taylor Eigsti, is scary enough--those incendiary octaves that ignite “Got a Match" into a post-bop firestorm.
Imagine, though, what it was like to experience this intensity first-hand when this surreally gifted player, all of ten or eleven years old, blew me off the bandstand.
I remember Eigsti as an amiable kid, dark-haired and smiling, as a friend introduced us and asked if ...
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