Gifts Makiko Hirabayashi, Weavers

• 1 High Tide 05:52
• 2 Weightless 05:15
• 3 Darkness and Light 06:02
• 4 Red 04:11
• 5 Up River 05:03
• 6 Gifts 03:49
• 7 Ghosts 05:12
• 8 Surely 03:54
• 9 Echoes 06:36
• Total Runtime 45:54

Info for Gifts

Gifts marks the tenth studio album by the Tokyo-born pianist and composer Makiko Hirabayashi, who has been based in Copenhagen for over 30 years. Following her previous trio album, Meteora, which drew inspiration from the monastic retreat of the same name in northwestern Greece, Gifts- recorded with her quartet Weavers- serves as a deeply personal musical memoir.

On this album, the reference to various pieces by Handel symbolises not only the gift of music, passed on through generations and time, but also its transformative power. Sometimes, a Baroque suspension is enough as an improvisational impulse. In "High Tide," strict fugato approaches repeatedly veer into the open form. "Weightless" starts as a piano solo improvisation, from which the quartet extracts some motifs from Largo of "Xerxes," culminating in a weightless ping-pong of high notes between sax and piano in the tree shade of an endless summer. "Darkness And Light" emerges from the sounds of the night and sneaks into a bright morning, while "Red" channels the intensity of Messiah's themes. "Up River" revisits motifs from "Water Music" to cleanse lingering scars. Handel's unique ability to write melodies that speak of humanity and emotional landscapes has kept his music relevant and alive through generations.

The Weavers - winners of Jazz Album of the Year at Danish Music Awards 2021- take the journey further as an intricate, close-knit unit. The sensitivity of the quartet is perhaps most evident at the album's conclusion: "Echoes." This piece, with its shimmering ambiguity, references the dreamlike Larghetto from Handel's D-major violin sonata, illustrating that Gifts is not merely a musical journey but also a spiritual exploration, navigating the spaces between origin and development, reflection and projection.

Fredrik Lundin, tenor- and mezzo soprano saxophone
Makiko Hirabayashi, piano
Thommy Andersson, bass
Bjørn Heebøll, drums, percussion

Recorded 12,13 Oct. 2023 at The Village Recording
Engineered by Thomas Vang
Mixed by August Wanngren
Mastered by Thomas Eberger and Sofia von Hage at Stockholm Mastering

Makiko Hirabayashi
is a Japanese pianist and composer, based in Copenhagen since 1990. She has received wide critical acclaim as a personal voice on the international jazz scene since the release of her debut album as a leader in 2006. Throughout the last two dacades, she has toured extensively across Europe and Asia with her trio feat. Marilyn Mazur and Klavs Hovman, her quartet – Weavers and as a solo pianist.

Makiko’s latest and fifth studio album with her trio is titled Meteora, symbolized by the ancient Greek monasteries, built on top of 600m high sandstone formations – seemingly fallen from the sky or suspended in midair. The music on this album shifts between sensitive, communicative sound web of bizzare beauty and compositions that pull you back to earth with powerful and challenging rhythms. Meteora was listed amongst The Best Albums of 2023 by Downbeat Magazine, and Makiko was nominated for Jazz Composer Of The Year at Danish Music Awards 2024.

In 2021, Makiko recieved the prestigious award, Jazz Album Of The Year at Danish Music Awards with her quartet, Weavers. This group features some of the leading figures of the Scandinavian music scene – saxophonist Fredrik Lundin, Swedish bassist Thommy Andersson and drummer Bjørn Heebøll – expanding her musical universe with a fresh approach. Keeping the collective, creative force at its core, Weavers create genre-transcending music that balances between strong lyricism and abstract soundscapes.

Makiko has released nine albums to date, including duo collaborations with the American saxophonist Bob Rockwell and trumpeter Flemming Agerskov. She was the recipient of the Honorary Award from the Danish Composers Association in 2020.

As a sidewoman, she plays an active role in numerous projects led by Marilyn Mazur, and has worked with many of Europe’s top notch musicians, including Enrico Rava, Norma Winstone, Nils Petter Molvær and Josefine Cronholm.

Makiko was born 1966 in Tokyo, where she started playing piano at the age of 4. Spending 5 years of her formative years in Hong Kong – a cultural melting pot at the time, has had a lasting impact on her life. At age 20, she won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her original intention to study film scoring quickly shifted towards improvising and composing on the piano, as she found herself immersed in the live jazz scene of Boston. Since 1990, she has been based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her multicultural background and musical diversity is reflected in her music. Elements of jazz, classical music, Far Eastern music and Nordic moods are all molded into an intriguing, compelling sound of her own.

This album contains no booklet.