Michiel Borstlap Trio - Dún Laoghaire
From Amsterdam
Michiel Borstlap Trio
Michiel Borstlap – piano | Harry Emery – bass | Erik Kooger – drums
“Borstlap’s balance between accessible grooving and mysterious speculation is subtly sustained, and the improvisational surprises just keep coming.” – The Guardian
“Crystalline piano playing” - New York Times
So garlanded is Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap, its surely an oversight that his Irish debut has been such a long time coming.
Back in ‘96, he seemed to arrive fully formed on the European music scene, winning The Thelonious Monk/ BMI Composer's Award for his composition Memory of Enchantment, subsequently recorded by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Over the next decade, he would go on to perform with similarly stellar company on the big stages of festivals like The North Sea, driving awareness of his music throughout Holland, where he enjoys a profile rare among jazz musicians, and is also a published author, Esquire columnist and film composer.
That this prodigious talent hails from Amsterdam is no great surprise given the city's history as a catalyst for creative exchange in different facets of contemporary music, and where young classical soloists learn side by side with their jazz counterparts. Its certainly reflected in his own music, which ranges from improvising small groups with drummers as diverse as the fusion of Bill Bruford and the iconoclast Han Bennink, to euphoric collaborations with deejays and funk bands, its unifying thread a rhythmic earthiness beaded with moments of delicate lyricism.
Official Website of Michiel Borstlap HERE