Yaron Herman

Yaron Herman, an Israeli jazz pianist based in France, launched his recording career while still in his early twenties and earned widespread praise, with some hailing him as the Keith Jarrett of his generation. He entered the world in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 12, 1981, and took up the piano only as a teenager. After just a few years of lessons he relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, enrolling at the Berklee College of Music at nineteen. He soon departed Berklee, however, settling instead in Paris, France, where his recording activity began at twenty-one. His first full-length release, the 2004 collaborative album Takes 2 to Know 1 with drummer Sylvain Ghio, appeared on the Sketch label. Two years later he issued his initial solo effort, Variations, on Laborie Records. That same year he contributed to Raphaël Imbert’s Newtopia Project album Suite Elegiaque, issued by the classical imprint Zig-Zag Territoires. In 2007 the Yaron Herman Trio—completed by bassist Matt Brewer and drummer Gerald Cleaver—reached the French albums chart with its debut recording, A Time for Everything, also on Laborie Records. The set mixes Herman’s original compositions with covers of contemporary hits by Björk (“Army of Me”) and Britney Spears (“Toxic”), alongside earlier staples by the Police (“Message in a Bottle”) and Leonard Cohen (“Hallelujah”).