- This event has passed.
Cyrus Chestnut Trio
October 14, 2023 @ 7:30 pm
From the church to the conservatory to jazz festivals worldwide, Cyrus Chestnut is one of the most soul-satisfying pianists on the scene. He transmits transcendent joy to the audience at every opportunity. Perhaps this is because of his deep connection to spirit: “I believe the ability to play music is a gift from God and every time I play, I’m thankful. Every time I sit down to play, for me, is worship and expression,” he told DownBeat magazine. As a result his music is filled with both the fire and the peace of the Black church. In an interview with NPR he affirmed that recurring theme when asked about how the church affected his playing: “At any given time if you can hear a gospel riff, it’s just who I am…it’s in my DNA. The church is in my DNA. I think now I have a much deeper passion to simply be able to play, and so it’s all there. It’s all there – it’s always been there and will always be there.” The confidence and beauty that Chestnut projects has been recognized by myriad legends who have asked him to join their recording projects including Betty Carter, Little Jimmy Scott, Carl Allen, Wynton Marsalis, James Carter, Freddie Cole, Kevin Mahogany, Dee Dee Bridgewater and many others. And the critics love him too – The Guardian claims his performance on his latest album is “like Oscar Peterson in his heyday.”
—TIME Magazine
