Aaron Diehl Trio
Mirror

Cal Performances audiences will recognize Aaron Diehl as the phenomenal pianist and music director for many of Cécile McLorin Salvant’s ensembles, and from several star appearances this past year in the Now, More than Ever blog. He returns this season leading his own trio in a new project showcasing his fluency in both classical repertoire and dynamic jazz improvisation.

Diehl made a splash as a concert soloist with performances of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra several seasons ago, and critics have raved over his meticulously styled recordings, which combine original compositions with jazz tunes by John Lewis and Sir Roland Hanna and concert works by Philip Glass and Sergei Prokofiev. With Mirror, the pianist and his partners explore the affinities of the counterpoint in Bach’s music with bebop vocabulary, interspersing solo selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier with Diehl’s own music—along with works by jazz greats like Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Bud Powell, and Chick Corea—in corresponding keys.

“Diehl gracefully melds two worlds, merging the improvisational spirit of jazz with the compositional intricacies of Western classical music” (DownBeat).

The run time for this performance is approximately 60 minutes without intermission, and not including any encores.