gilad do tk

Gilad Barkan - Piano / Compositions
John Benitez - Bass
Harvey Wirht - Drums

Poignant and enchanting, Barkan's music links his love for popular musics from around the world – notably Africa, Brazil, and his Israeli homeland – with a joyous rhythmic and melodic freedom as an improviser, and a distinctly warm and lyrical approach. Puerto Rican bassist John Benitez and Surinamese drummer Harvey Wirht anchor the band within a powerful and organic texture, rooted in Latin and African rhythms and jazz.

Born in England and raised in Israel, Barkan grew up in a musical family and took up the piano as a teenager. After a year of study at Rimon School of Jazz, during which he won the school's Jazz Musician of the Year competition, he moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, Barkan began recording and performing nationally and internationally with guitarist Issi Rozen, and appears on the guitarist’s releases, commercially successful and critically acclaimed by Jazz Times, NPR and many others. Barkan collaborated in Boston with Sergio and Fernando Brandão, Gifrants, Dan Greenspan, John Lockwood, and Ron Gill/John Stein.

Barkan moved to New York City in 2009 and found a wonderful new expressive voice for his music in multi Grammy winning bassist John Benitez, performing a new set of compositions with a strong melodic base and greater flexibility for improvisation. In New York, Barkan has also collaborated with Nigerian vocalist, composer and master talking-drummer Kofo the Wonderman, and with the dynamic South-African vocalist and composer Lorraine Klaasen, among others.

Barkan performed at New York City's 55 Bar, Iridium, BAM Café, Apollo Theater, Cornelia's St. Cafe, Zinc Bar, Smoke, New Leaf, The Kitano, The Shrine and Caffe Vivaldi; at Boston's Hatch Shell, Berklee Performance Center, First Night, Regattabar, Scullers, Ryles; WFNX Jazz Festival and Ocho Rios Jazz Festival, Jamaica.

Barkan’s trio debut, Modulation (2003, New Step Music), blended African and Brazilian rhythms with jazz, creating a lyrical and vibrant interplay, and a recording that earned a wealth of praise from critics. Live Sessions (2007), Barkan’s second New Step release, includes some of the most exciting and moving performances by Barkan’s trio and quartet, and describes a period of musical growth and exploration towards a more open-ended sound, focusing and developing the group’s cohesiveness and joy in the moment. Recorded live at Boston's Regattabar, Proceso de Duelo (2009) explores a new set of the leader's compositions, offering a compelling and evocative portrait that speaks to a life lived through music.