Trio TAQ: Marcin Masecki, Garth Stevenson, Ziv Ravitz Concert Tour

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Marcin Masecki, the celebrated young jazz pianist who took the contemporary jazz world by storm when he won the 2005 Moscow International Jazz Piano Competition (its jury chaired by legendary Martial Solal), is being brought back by The Polish Cultural Institute on a U.S. tour with his long-time partners in Trio TAQ – Canadian bassist Garth Stevenson and Israeli drummer Ziv Ravitz – with concerts at the Lily Pad in Boston on Monday, December 17; New York's Joe's Pub on Tuesday, December 18; Chris Jazz Café in Philadelphia on Thursday, December 20; and the Bohemian Caverns in Washington on Friday, December 21.

Trio TAQ was founded in Boston in 2002 while Masecki, Stevenson and Ravitz were studying at the Berklee College of Music. During a six-hour session of original compositions and improvisations, Marcin, Garth, and Ziv experienced a chemistry and magic like no other, and forged a lifelong bond and band. They began performing in Boston and New York and in March 2003 made their first trip together to Poland. Audiences were immediately captured by the energy, connectivity, telepathy, and honesty of the music. Over the next four years TAQ continued touring in Eastern and Western Europe at major jazz festivals and piano festivals like the London Jazz Festival and the International Jazz Piano Festival in Prague, as well as in clubs and concert halls. In 2005 TAQ recorded their album "TAQ Live in Minsk Mazowiecki." Collectively they have performed with an impressive roster of notable artists including Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz, Tomasz Stanko, George Garzone, Ben Monder, Dave Samuels, Avishai Cohen and many others.

Masecki, a jazz prodigy who by age 12 was a regular at the legendary Polish jazz club "Akwarium, " was at 15 a member of the acclaimed Polish group Alchemik, which won the Grand Prix at the Jazz Hoeilaart Competition in Brussels, where Masecki himself won the award for "Best Soloist." He tours extensively, performing at international jazz festivals, clubs, and major stage concert venues, often performing beside the great trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and opening for such jazz greats as the Branford Marsalis Quartet at the Skok Jazz Sopot in 2005 and recently for Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the Warsaw Jazz Summer Days Festival. Following last year's sell-out solo performance at Joe's Pub, Marcin Masecki will join his outstanding New York based partners Stevenson and Ravitz for a series of Trio TAQ performances that promise to be unforgettable in their powerful energy, technical mastery, melodic richness, and improvisational intricacy.

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