Gilad Hekselman Trio

Sunday, January 28, 2024

7:30 PM

The series continues Sunday, January 28, with the San Diego debut of NYC-based jazz guitar phenomenon Gilad Hekselman, with bassist David Robaire and drummer JK Kim. Israeli-born Hekselman has shared the stage with some of the greatest artists in jazz, including John Scofield, Danilo Perez, Anat Cohen, and Esperanza Spalding. He has played all the major clubs in New York and has toured the world’s most noteworthy jazz festivals. In 2005, Gilad won the Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition, opening for guitar legend Paco de Lucia at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2017, Gilad placed first in the Rising Star guitarist category in DownBeat magazine. In 2018 another guitar legend, Pat Metheny, invited Gilad to perform for his NEA Jazz Master Award ceremony at the Kennedy Center. In 2019 he led his own quartet for a week’s run at NYC’s legendary Village Vanguard, the world’s most prestigious jazz venue.

The New York Times wrote, “The feeling in a small club quickly grows intense when Gilad Hekselman steps up to improvise. Hekselman has set himself roughly up in the line of Pat Metheny and Kurt Rosenwinkel, with a warm and clean guitar tone, clear articulation, and crazily extended improvisational ideas.” JazzTimes commented, “Hekselman is clearly poised to reach the highest ranks on his instrument.”