Shai Maestro Quartet

"I always try to pay tribute to the history of jazz without wanting to be someone else - but to let the music flow out of me," says pianist Shai Maestro. He initially played classical music as a child. He came to jazz via Oscar Peterson and Keith Jarrett. He won several piano competitions, but turned down a scholarship at the famous Berklee College of Music. Instead, he went on tour with bassist Avishai Cohen shortly afterwards and built up an excellent reputation as a sideman. Soon afterwards, Maestro formed his own trio in Brooklyn, which went on to release highly acclaimed albums on the ECM label. "Listening to Shai Maestro is like waking up in a new world", marvels All About Jazz, and a very real one at that. Because, says Maestro: "We live in the world of Photoshop and artificial intelligence, where all bodies are perfect and all music is quantized. You just want to shout out: Give me something that's real!"