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Yaron Herman: Follow The White Rabbit

By Bruce Lindsay

Follow The White Rabbit is Israeli pianist Yaron Herman's fifth album--his first on the ACT label and his first with the rhythm section of bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Tommy Crane. Continuing the format of his past trio albums A Time For Everything (Laborie Records, 2007) and Muse (Laborie Records, 2009), Herman mixes original tunes and covers, including one or two unusual and not altogether successful choices. Radiohead's “No Surprises" keeps close to the sound of the ...

Yaron Herman Trio: Muse

By Raul d'Gama Rose

If music could exist outside of time--not as in rhythm, but as in the time-space continuum--then it might sound like the glassy, ice-hot pianism of Yaron Herman. How did he get to inhabit this spare soundscape in almost suspended animation? Perhaps it is because he is powered by the magic of an uninhibited soul--that and the happy accident of the finiteness of mathematics. Add the mysterious trickery of melding of the two, and the result is music that sways, mirage-like ...

Yaron Herman: An Urgent Need to Play

By Jean-Marc Gelin

Pianist Yaron Herman, an Israeli now living in Paris, is one of the most talented artists of the Parisian jazz musical scene. He was a promising basketball player on the Israeli national junior team when he was cut short by a knee injury. He then decided to take up playing the piano at age 16. His teacher, the renowned Opher Brayer--famous for his methods based on philosophy and mathematics--taught him the craving for self-knowledge and discovery.

At 19, Yaron left ...

Yaron Herman Trio: Muse

By Chris May

Muse is Yaron Herman's fourth album and with it the Israeli-born/French-based pianist continues his steady progress towards a mature post-Keith Jarrett, post-Brad Mehldau style and the certainty of world ranking. Still in his late twenties, Herman set out his stall with the piano/drums duo album Takes 2 To Know 1 (Sketch, 2005), which was followed by a solo set, Variations (Laborie Records, 2006), and most recently a trio plus electronica album, A Time For Everything (Laborie Records, 2007). The new ...

Yaron Herman Trio: A Time for Everything

By John Kelman

Sometimes the power of a back story can eclipse the music it supports. For Israeli-born pianist Yaron Herman it's a close call, but A Time for Everything is such a refreshing and multifaceted album that a little background is necessary.

Herman, still in his mid-twenties, began playing piano at sixteen, a shift in focus resulting from an unexpected basketball accident that put an end to his sporting aspirations. The sports world's loss became the music world's ...

Yaron Herman: Variations

By Dr. Judith Schlesinger

Variations is Israeli-born pianist Yaron Herman's first solo release. Now 25, he didn't start studying piano until he was sixteen. At nineteen he moved to Boston to attend Berklee, but was turned off by its competitive climate; a return stopover in Paris and a spontaneous jam session led to a recording contract and a new home. His first recording was a well-received duo with drummer Sylvain Ghio called Takes 2 to Know (Sketch, 2005).

Variations is an intriguing disc that's ...

Yaron Herman/Sylvain Ghio: Takes 2 to Know 1

By AAJ Staff

Though the piano/drums duo format is not unprecedented (Russ Freeman and Shelly Manne were doing it back in the early '50s), the Sean Lennon look-alike, Israeli-residing-in-Paris pianist Yaron Herman avoids the seemingly inevitable avant-garde tendencies that this experimental pairing has conveniently evolved into over the decades. A very thematic player who remains conscious of where he's come from and where he's going, Herman works in waves of developing momentum in meditative, even seductive fashion, while drummer Sylvain Ghio ...